The Martyr's Reward
by Evil's Worst Nightmare
Summary: He had two friends: Shisui, and a small little girl. No one ever realised just how much she really meant. Now, she's brought him back to the village he gave everything up for, and life has turned around. All that was left was his dramaqueen bro. ItachiXOC
1. Memories of the Past

**A/N:** Wow, I've been wanting to do this one for ages, so...here it is. It's Itachi, folks, contains lots of spoilers, and won't completly follow the story line. How can I, when it sucks so bad? Sasuke's pissing me off more than usual, so in this work, he will suffer greatly.

**DISCALIMER**:I do not own Naruto, but I do own the OC's, like Miho, Shisui's character and personality, and Yuu. There are more, but those come later. Yuu does too, but he's also a main villian, SOOOOO...he get's metioned now.

**WARNING**: Contains spoiliers from 396 onward! Also, I make fun of people. You don't like that, leave now.

--

Ch. 1: Memories of the Past

It was blissfully dark all around him. He was so tired, and the darkness was welcome and soft after all of the trials of his life. And his goal was complete. Sasuke had the Mangekyo Sharingan, and something else to work for. With hope, he might learn something from all of this and go home to Konoha, settle down with that strong pink-haired friend of the Kyuubi's, and have lots and lots of little Sharingan containing children to restock the Uchiha compound that he'd so violently emptied. Maybe. There was hope, but his Otouto always had been a bit of an idiot. But, one way or another, he'd make it, and he'd be alright.

Without realizing it, his mind wandered back into time. Back to the good days where everything had been okay. Back when he hadn't been a spy, or a clan murderer, or a traitor. When life had been good. When it had just been him, and Shisui. Instantly, he knew that wasn't quite right. At first, it _**had**_ just been him and his greatest friend, but someone else had joined them along the way. In his mind's eye, he could himself, a blank face, no emotion in either face or eyes, and then there was Shisui, standing a little taller than he, about two or three inches worth, with a huge, goofy grin on his face. For a second, he felt a pang of remorse over killing Shisui. Shisui had been a fun, easy-going, slightly annoying, kind of person. Most people who saw them together shook their heads, not understanding how those two polar opposites had been friends. Some days, he hadn't understood himself.

Then, there, a little behind and off of Shisui, was a smaller, slightly hazy figure. His memory had dulled, but the more he thought, the clearer the image became. It was a small girl, with tan skin, short black hair, and reddish-black eyes. She had her arms locked behind her as she peeked out from behind Shisui with a large smile on her face. He remembered now, how easily her smiles came for him. And just how much a part of that group she had been. But, even as he struggled to, he couldn't seem to remember her name. Couldn't remember what she was called.

Slowly, his tired mind drifted back into time and memory, back to the day that had started it all.

_-_

_He was walking slowly home after his latest mission, and he was incredibly tired. His Jounnin team had a nasty habit of lumping all of the shinobi work on him. He gave an imperceptible sigh through his nose as the Uchiha compound came into view. Maybe now he could rest a little. But, as with his luck, that wasn't the case. His aunt, Kijuuki, intercepted him before he reached the main house._

"_Itachi-kun, there you are! Quick, change into these!!" She'd thrown his formal clothes, which she'd been carrying, at him, then shoved him into a random room, while urging him to dress quickly through the door. He had no idea what was going on, but he swiftly changed, and emerged not two minutes later. She urged him to the main hall, then in through the back door in time to meet his parents and Sasuke before they walked through the main doors._

"_Father, what's going on?", he'd asked immediately. His father, with his perpetual frown, motioned towards the doors._

"_Formal peace signings with the Umahi clan. You're just in time, as expected of my son."_

_He'd fought the urge to roll his eyes, but he knew that would not be a good idea, and so did not do it. The doors swung open and he strolled in along with his parents up to the stage where a very old, very frail looking old woman, two large young men he recognized as village Jounin, and a small, kinda scrawny young girl with pale skin, ear length black hair, and a whole hell of a lot of scratches, stood. Who was she?? The old woman was obviously the clan matriarch, and the two men where her sons and heirs. But the girl? He'd never even heard of a scrawny girl in this clan._

_As his father, mother, and brother climbed the steps of the dais, he performed a few hand seal and disappeared in a swirl of smoke, only to reappear at Shisui's side, in the crowd. His cousin gave a small smirk and a grunt to acknowledge his presence._

"_Who's the girl?", he asked quietly out of the side of his mouth. Shisui gave a tiny shrug._

"_No idea. No one knows. But everybody's sure she's not one of the family. And not liked either. Look at the Matriarch's sons…" Itachi looked up and saw that both full grown, bear-like men were giving the poor girl the deepest glares of hatred that seemed to be possible for their ugly faces. He raised his eyebrow slightly._

"…_the hell…?" _

_Shisui nodded._

"_Yeah, that's what everyone else is saying." _

_His cousin studied the girl, then smirked._

"_She's kinda cute." _

_Itachi glanced up at Shisui with a raised eyebrow. His friend looked down at him with a wide smile, showing that he had meant what he said. Itachi gave a small sneer._

"_Idiot."_

_Shisui gave a loud laugh, and several people in the crowd turned their heads to look at them. To shut him up, he gave his cousin a sound elbow blow to the ribs._

_After he was sure his cousin would remain decently quiet, he turned to watch the proceedings again. And yet, that one lone little girl continued to draw his attention._

_--_

_It wasn't until later, at the party the Umahi hosted in honor of the event, that Itachi met her. Or, rather, ran into her as she carried a tray with sake bottle and cups toward his father, the Umahi matriarch, and her sons. Of course, if he ran into her, that meant so did Shisui. She stopped just short of them, instead of running into them, and lowered her eyes to the floor._

_"E-excuse me...", she murmured. Shisui had looked up from where he was sitting after another punch for silence from Itachi. He immediately bounced to his feet and gave her his smoothest smile._

_"WE-LL hello there. And you are??", he asked, waggling his brows at her. She looked up with a tiny smile._

_"Mi-oh!"_

_"GIRL!! Where is that sake??", the older of the Umahi heirs barked from his seat. The girl jumped, then slid around them both with another 'excuse me.', and was walking away when Shisui called after her with a teasing grin._

_"So, you're Miho?"_

_She turned around to give him a smile that lit up the room and put the setting sun to shame. Then she shook her head, and called over her shoulder:_

_"You can call me that if you want, but no. It's Mioko!" _

_And with that, she'd vanished into the crowd. Shisui turned to him with a little grin._

_"Miho-Mioko, eh? Pretty name."_

_The crowd jumped a moment later as a wail of pain echoed across the room, to where a small girl with short black hair was serving sake. She gave a ghost of a smile before returning to her duties._

_None of the three had known it yet, but that swift conversation would be the beginning of something beautiful._

_-_

_-_

_-_

_-_

Ah, that was it. He remembered now. She name had been Mioko, though they'd called her Miho is teasing. He could feel a ghost of a smile on his lips. She'd been something, that Miho. After that first meeting, when ever he and Shisui had been around the village, they'd run into her a lot. And as they'd run into her, they'd started talking. And as they started talking, they slowly became friends. Even if Shisui was the one who did most of the talking.

Itachi remembered the time they had come across Miho on her way to the academy one morning, a gigantic pile of books in her arms...

-

-

-

_"Heya, Miho. What's with the books?"_

_Miho stuck her head around the huge column in her arms._

_"Homework, and lots of it. What else?"_

_They waited for her to walk past and then fell in beside her, Shisui on the right, and Itachi on the left. Shisui began to tease her._

_"Aww, poor little Miho. You have to carry all those heavy books. Too bad you don't have the arm strength **I** do."_

_Shisui began to strut while rolling up one sleeve to show off a semi-decent arm. Itachi watched Miho secretly roll her eyes half way up before stopping, and getting a devious glint in her eye. She stuck her lower lip out a little, and adopted a simpering tone._

_"Ohhh, wow. You're so strong looking, Shi-kun! So much stronger than little old me. I bet you could..."_

_She paused, and bit her lip innocently. Shisui instantly bit the bait._

_" What, what? You bet I could do what?"_

_Miho fluttered her lashes at him._

_"I bet you could carry half my books for me. Couldn't you? Since you're so strong, and so kind to me, Shi-kun..."_

_Shisui actually puffed out his chest at he strutted along, but tried to make himself appear tougher by putting a finger to his chin._

_"I don't know, Miho. You really **should** carry them yourself..."_

_Miho batted her eyelashes a bit harder and stuck her lower lip out in a cute little pout._

_"Oh, pleeeease, Shi-kun? For me?"_

_That did it. Shisui instantly reached out and picked up half of her books, grunting with the effort._

_"Geez, Miho, these are really heavy."_

_Mioko gave him a sweet smile._

_"You'll be ok, Shi-kun. After all, you're **soooo** strong..."_

_Shisui glowed, and did not say a single word of complaint after that. That was when Miho turned her eyes to Itachi, and gave him puppy-dog eyes that would have made Ibiki Morino cave._

_"Sempai, I don't suppose you would be nice enough to carry these? They're awfully heavy..."_

_She batted her eyelashes, and received a poke to the forehead from Itachi's pointer and middle fingers. She stared at him._

_"You could have just asked." He murmured._

_Miho looked down with a guilty blush on her face. She was silent for a few minuets before turning to Itachi again, this time with out the puppy eyes, or annoying simper._

_"Sempai...please?", was all she asked._

_With a tiny smile, Itachi took the other half of her books, and received a blindingly beautiful smile that brought a little heat to his cheeks in return._

_"Thanks so much, Sempai!!"_

_He just nodded, and hid his slight blush stealthily behind his stack of books. _

_-_

_-_

_-_

Why the hell did she have to be so cute? He remembered how much she'd chased after him in Shinobi studies, determined to catch them both as soon as possible. She'd still been in the academy, but she'd graduated just as he'd become an ANBU. He remembered her gift. And learning a few new things about her.

-

-

-

_"Congratulations, Itachi-chan"_

_"Well done, Kiddo!"_

_"As expected of my son..." _(**A/N-** Doesn't this line just get old as hell? But Fugaku says it **a lot**, and I wanted to make fun of him. Just that whole 'you planned a Coup d'etat and ruined your sons' lives' thing just makes me hate 'im.)

_"Congratulations, Itachi-kun!"_

_"Way to go, Nii-san! You're so cool!"_

_On and on it went, the endless praise that made his head ache and gave him the urge to pound his head against the wall. Nothing was more torturous than **this**. And he'd been through ANBU torture training with that sadist, Morino. After the praise came gifts. Oh great. Now he had to be gracious and polite and make his parents proud accepting things he'd probably never use._

_Okay, maybe the kunai, but that was the only thing useful he got. Everything else was clothes and food he'd just throw or give away, or even burn, in the case of old aunt Boki, the clan book keeper's, gift of a bright pink and green spandex suit. Never. He'd never hear the end of it for even getting the thing once Shisui saw it._

_Speaking of Shisui, where was he? _

_Itachi scanned the large room as he automatically accepted the next gift basket filled with oranges. His cousin was no where to be seen, and Itachi was secretly disappointed. No matter how annoying, Shisui and his bad jokes would have made this so much more bearable. But his luck was out again that day._

_--_

_Later, when all the ruckus had died down, Itachi escaped out of the compound and headed toward the training grounds of Field 8. He gave a sigh of relief as he passed into the shade of the trees. Then, the wind brought the sounds of whispers and giggles to his ears. The whispers and giggles of his two 'friends', to be exact. He frowned, and walked deeper into the glade, following the noise. As he walked, he didn't notice the stick that snapped loudly as he trod on it, and silenced the whispers. _

_Then came a "Damn, he's here already. Quick, finish up. I'll go get him.", and Shisui poofed into view at his side, then slapped him on his shoulder, laughing._

_"You look like you went ten rounds with the Sannin, my friend. And lost. Glad you could escape. Now come see."_

_Itachi was dragged by the arm through two more clearings before he stopped at a sunlit one next to the stream. There in the center sat a large picnic cloth covered with plates of dango, chokore-to covered ichigo, and several more of his favorite okashi, along with three cups of cool mint green tea, and a pot more of it sitting in the middle of the cloth. Kneeling on the forest floor to adjust the cloth with her back to him, was Miho. Feeling his gaze, she turned around with a big smile on her face._

_"Heya, Sempai!" She called._

_"You look awful! Come and sit!"_

_He and Shisui did just that: walked over and flopped comfortably out on the cloth._

_"What is this?", he asked with a raised eyebrow. Mioko giggled, and Shisui answered:_

_"A far better congratulations party than our dull clan could ever throw. I bet it sucked."_

_Itachi hummed softly in agreement, and Shisui snickered. Miho handed Itachi a plate loaded with all of the sweets, and then placed one of the cups before him where he could reach it, then served herself and Shisui. The three settled down to eat, with Shisui providing commentary on everything from the weather, to the pretty girl who'd smiled at him at the store, to old aunt Boki's weird smell. He had Miho laughing and groaning by turns, and Itachi sort of smiling by the time they finished eating. Then Shisui began to bounce in his seat like a child as Miho refilled their cups._

_"Present time! Present time!", he sang, and Miho giggled. His friend was gone in a flash, and back just as quick, holding a very long slim package out to his younger cousin._

_"Open it, open it!", he chanted and urged._

_Shisui's present was a brand new tanto in a black lacquered sheath that bore the Uchiha symbol on it and a custom made and wrapped grip and handle. Itachi slowly drew the bright steel with a muted 'SCHIIIIK' that echoed through the silence. It was a double blade that shone in the faint light. He slowly re-sheathed it, then clapped Shisui on the shoulder and thanked him. He was going to use this gift a lot._

_He was putting the sword to the side when he saw Miho reach into the picnic basket and pull out a medium sized pouch that would fit easily into a shinobi pack. She turned and held it out to him._

_"C-congratulations, Sempai.", she said, looking down with a small blush._

_It was a med-kit, the only one he'd received. Apparently everyone else thought he'd do so good, he wouldn't need one. But this was far different from a normal med-kit. It was nearly humming with chakra, and filled up with supplies for every possible medical emergency he might have. He silently wondered how the hell she'd made it all fit. He looked up to find her fidgeting with her fingers._

_"I-I've been training as a m-medic, as well as a k-kunoichi, and I w-wanted to do this for y-you, S-sempai. I t-thought it might h-help." She blushed, and hid her face in her hands as he slowly put the med-kit aside. He then reached out, and placed a hand on her head, then gave it a steadying pat._

_"I like it, Miho. Thank you. It's the only one I received, so I will use it well."_

_He then gave her a small, rare smile that made her face turn bright red behind her hands. Then, Shisui had laughed, and the moment was gone. They lingered for another hour, talking, laughing, joking, and nibbling at sweets. After that, they packed up and slowly trudged toward the Uchiha compound again. When they reached it's opening, Shisui went inside after goodbyes, but Miho called Itachi back. He looked at her quizzically, or at least as much as he could with his expressionless face._

_S__he turned red and stared down at her toes._

_"I...um-I h-have another g-gift for you, Sempai.", she squeaked._

_He lightly raised an eyebrow as she inched closer, then looked up and down the deserted street, as if to make sure no one was watching._

_Then, she swiftly stood on tiptoes and pressed her lips very softly to his, startling him into stillness. She pulled away like he burned her, and looked down at the ground with a vermillion hue in her cheeks._

_"Congratulations on making ANBU, Sempai! See you tomorrow!"_

_With that, she scurried down the street without looking back, leaving a stunned Itachi to watch her go._

_-_

_-_

_-_

He felt like sighing, because he'd been more aware of her after that, even if neither of them mentioned what happened. They had both been eleven at the time, meeting at ten. And so months had passed, bringing with it the words that would change his life forever.

-

-

-

_"Exterminate the Uchiha clan."_

_He looked up slowly at the mournful face of the Third Hokage, flanked by the grim council members and a slightly smug Danzo. Turmoil ruled in his head. Kill his clan. So the negotiations had failed, and he knew that meant the Coup d'etat would go forward. The Uchiha clan had sealed it's fate. He took a single deep breath._

_"Understood, Hokage-sama."_

_-_

_He stood in the forest, waiting, as a malevolent chakra signature grew closer and closer. So he was alive after all, and there was some credit to the clues he'd followed. Suddenly, a dark cloaked figure with an orange mask and a shock of black hair touched down on the forest floor to his left. He turned in that direction._

_"Madara."_

_The man stood and removed his mask, showing an entirely different face, confirming Itachi's suspicions._

_"What do you want, Uchiha? My clan cast me out. Why do you seek me now?"_

_In as little information as possible, Itachi explained the Coup d'etat, and what he wanted. Madara raised a fine black eyebrow._

_"You want me to help you kill the clan. Why? What's in it for me?"_

_Itachi took a deep, silent breath before taking the plunge. A single word left his tongue._

_"Revenge."_

_-_

_"Heya Itachi! What did you need?"_

_Shisui flickered into view at his friend's side, with a silly grin on his face, and Itachi's heart quietly clenched at the thought of what he was about to do. He was quiet before he slowly asked._

_"How long have you been keeping tabs on me?"_

_His friend 's goofy smile slid off of his face like oil._

_"So you know."_

_"Yes."_

_Shisui gazed at him._

_"You know why. Itachi, this has to be done. We're living in a secluded corner of town! They have to pay!! Uchiha is important, and it's time they learned that!! We won't be oppressed any longer!!"_

_His friend was getting out of control in his anger._

_"And if Miho dies?"_

_Shisui stopped mid-rant._

_"She won't. I've arranged to have her in the compound when we make the attack. She'll be safe."_

_He raised an eyebrow at Shisui._

_"She won't forgive you. She'll hate you if you do it."_

_His cousin flinched. His gaze, when he opened his eyes, was pleading._

_"Please don't say that. You'll jinx me."_

_Itachi sighed. He knew all that he needed to know. It was time to get down to business._

_"Shisui...I need your help..."_

_His friend immediately became serious._

_"What ever you need, I'll help you with."_

_His heart twisted at the words. Shisui had no idea what he was saying. But this had to be done. For the village. He turned to look his friend in the eye, and said something that would bring guilt to his mind for nearly a decade to come._

_"I'm sorry. I need you to die."_

_And then he had attacked. Before Shisui, famed far and wide for his speed, could react, Itachi had a hold of him so that he could not retaliate, and had shoved his head below the surface of the river. His friend's face twisted in fear below the water, and his body bucked and struggled, while his hands scrabbled at Itachi's arms._

_He pinned Shisui's body with his own, tears streaming down his cheeks to land on his friend's outstretched arms. One of Shisui's hands paused, then slowly came up to stroke away the tears away from Itachi's face, and the he smiled from underneath the water in a sad, and yet understanding way. Something in Itachi died right then and there._

_Slowly, he closed his eyes, and his body slowly went slack in Itach'is grip. Itachi held him under for another ten minuets to be sure, then let the river's current carry the body away when he released it. His eyes began to smart and burn, the pain growing with every second._

_It culminated to equal the pain of his broken heart, and Itachi grabbed his eyes and howled in pain to the evening sky. He screamed for a long, long time before collapsing on the river bank. Then, with his Sharingan, he forged the suicide note, and left it on the river bank to be found in the morning. Then he vanished using Shisui's favorite technique. He needed to have an alibi right now._

_-_

_Perhaps the worst thing about killing Shisui was Miho. He'd forgotten how close they were. When she found out, another part of him died._

_He stood with his father as they talked to the main coroner at the hospital, and she was coming down the hall in a nurse's uniform, something Shisui would have loved, carrying a lunch tray._

_"Yes, he drowned, but it appears to be suicide because there are no signs of struggle, and...well...he's...smiling."_

_His father didn't really care._

_"So he's dead."_

_The coroner nodded just as she walked past._

_"There's no doubt about it. Uchiha Shisui is dead of drowning."_

_CLA-NG!! _

_She'd stopped mid-step, and dropped the loaded tray. The food splattered and rolled everywhere, but she didn't even notice as her mentor came running down the hall to see what the commotion was. Miho turned to look at his father._

_"What?" Her voice was soft, and nearly non-existent, it was a wonder his father heard. But he did, and he turned to her with a look of pity in his eyes._

_"Yes. Shisui was found in the river this morning, dead. He drowned, and it looks like suicide. He even left a note."_

_Fugaku actually held it out to her, and Itachi almost flinched. He knew what it said.:_

**_I'm not sure that I can do this anymore. _**

**_I'm...so tired. I feel like I'm already dead, and I'm tired_**

**_of smiling. Don't cry for me, be happy. I'm not suffering anymore._**

**_Say good bye to Miho and Itachi for me. I hope they understand._**

**_-Shisui_**

_Without a sound, Miho sank to her knees, one hand covering her mouth as tears streamed down her cheeks. Fugaku took the note from her, but she didn't even look up, just stared blankly at the floor as her mentor clucked over her. As he turned to go, she looked up at him briefly, and the look on her face as he walked away nearly killed him._

_She had no more light in her eyes. She was like a living dead._

_-_

_-_

_-_

_Next came the Clan's death day. He already knew he couldn't kill Sasuke, and he'd begged the Hokage to protect him. He'd threatened the elders that he would go public, and Danzo...he threatened _**him**_ with bodily harm. In the end, they all agreed, and Sasuke had the Third's protection._

_That night, he paused in front of a picture he'd had for a while now. It was a picture of Shisui and Miho during the party that the Umahi clan had thrown when she'd made Chuunin six months before. Miho was asleep, exhausted from her day of battles. She was leaning against Shisui's shoulder, half into his arms, with a small smile on her face and her head nestled a little into his neck. Shisui had his arm around her waist, with both a blush and a half smile on his handsome face, happy to hold the girl he liked close to him. _

_In the background was the gold painted wall of the Umahi hall, with the horribly off-color decorations, and the banner congratualting Mioko. _

_He stared at the picture for a long moment, before reaching out and pulling it out of it's frame, then putting it in his pocket. He just couldn't quite leave everything he had behind. Hopefully that picture would be enough. With a small sigh, he took a last look around his room, checked that he had what he wanted in both his pack and pocket, then turned his back and walked out the door, closing it with a snap._

_-_

_He looked coldly down upon the calm profiles of his parents as they sat side by side, looking at him._

_"So...you have made your choice...", his father growled as he glared at his son._

_"Yes. This village does not deserve your petty wrath. So I have been given my orders."_

_His father sighed, then lowered his head, and Itachi struck; first his mother, then his father, and both bled to death in front of his eyes. His soul died just a little bit more. He shrank back into the shadows. Now to wait for Sasuke._

_-_

_He turned to Madara._

_"There is one last thing I need to do. I'll meet you at the edge of the village."_

_The older Uchiha was silent for a long moment, as though deliberating if he should heed Itachi or not. Itachi activated his Mangekyo, knowing it wouldn't mean much. Then Madara turned and vanished into the blood scented, nightmarish darkness. _

_He, too, flickered out of sight._

_-_

_"Miho."_

_She sat up slowly, her hair rumpled to the point that it way sticking half way up, and her eyes were cloudy with sleep. He frowned when he noted the dark rings under her eyes, and the pale hue of her skin._

_"Sempai?"_

_He felt a soft shiver go down his spine at the husky tone in her voice. He jumped from his perch on a tree branch, straight through her open window, to land silently on her bedroom floor. The cloying scent of blood followed to waft in the air between them. Her eyes snapped wide, and he knew she was awake. She was out of bed and across the room to his side surprisingly fast._

_"Are you hurt? Where?" Her tone was close to panicked at the thought of loosing another of her precious people, and her hands began to trail over his body. His hands swiftly grasped her wrists as another small shiver wracked his spine._

_"I'm fine."_

_She let out a long breath of relief. He picked her up easily in his arms, ignoring her squeak of protest, and set her back on her bed. He let his hand run over her hair softly._

_"Miho, I'm leaving. I can't tell you why, but I'm telling you now...I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to deal with this. I'm so sorry."_ (**A/N**- Yes, I know it's a little out of character, but all of the memories Sasuke shows us, shows that Itachi was more open and nicer back in those days. So there ya go.)

_She gave him a puzzled, and slightly knowing, look._

_"Wha-" He placed a finger over her lips, silencing her, before he reached into his pocket and pulling out a small wrapped box. He placed it into her hand, and closed her fingers firmly around it. She stared at him with wide eyes. He gave her a small smile._

_"Do not hate me too much for this."_

_Her puzzled expression grew more defined as he gave her sleeping robe tie a small tug._

_"May I have this?"_

_She nodded, set the box he'd given her on her pillow, and then undid the tie before unwinding the strip of silk from her waist. She folded it, then handed it to him, still looking slightly confused. He sighed, knowing he needed to leave soon. ANBU would be after him soon. He had to wrap this up. _

_He put one hand on either side of her face, holding her still, and pulled her to him to give her the best kiss he could, as long and as deep as he was willing to force on her. Her hands gripped his shoulders, and she didn't respond; She didn't push him away either. Slowly, he pulled back to gaze at her dazed expression._

_"Good-bye, Mioko. Remember me."_

_And he was gone, as silently as he had come. Behind him, he left his last attachment to Konohagakure._

_Mission accomplished._

_-_

_-_

_-_

He could hear voices, and those voices disrupted his chain of memories, even if the darkness remained. He was suddenly aware of a piercing pain in his leg, and shouts half reaching him.

"...Akatsuki!.."

"...Kill...stop...eating..."

The muffled sound of battle began to ring in his ears, and he struggled to make his body move, but it would not cooperate. His breath came labored, and he felt himself slipping away from sound again. A woman's voice sounded close by him, and he faintly felt her hands on his face. Strangely, he heard every word she said, in a crystal clear ring.

"Hokage-sama. We've found him, but he's fading fast. Do I save him? Yes, or No?"

Then everything went silent again, and he felt relieved. Hopefully it was all over.

And then a pain so intense it could be compared to the pain he'd felt when he received the Mangekyo Sharingan, gripped his entire body, and every memory he'd ever had in his life raced through his mind as his body screamed. Sensations returned, bringing with them: pain, light, and sound. His body arched as he let out a scream of pain. Hands held him down, keeping him from thrashing and hurting himself.

The pain went on and on, until finally, it abruptly stopped, and he flopped back against the forest floor, gasping for breath and dragging in lungfuls of wet earth and blood scented air. His leg throbbed, and his felt the affects of all of his diseases, and his eyes ached and throbbed. He shut them tight with an inward groan.

A cool wave of foreign chakra flowed into him, eliminating the aches in his leg and eyes, and subduing his illnesses. He gave a soft sigh of relief, and opened his eyes to meet the tired gaze of a very familiar woman. Her reddish-black eyes studied him, and there was a silver necklace with an Uchiha crest pendant around her neck. She smiled faintly at him, then murmured softly:

"Welcome back, Sempai."

Then her eyes closed and she collapsed beside him. A swift wave of exhaustion washed over him, and his eyes shut before his tired brain could even register the woman's name. Although, his subconscious already knew, and his mouth replied as he passed out:

"Thank you...Miho."

--

**A/N-** Oh My God...I finished it! Yeah! Anyway, incase I confised anyone...Itachi was, like, within an inch of death, and he's thinking he's dead, and the memories are basically setting some tone for the story, and it's giving all of the background info I was too lazy to write the normal way. This story will be littered with memories. Not as bad as this first chapter, mind you, but still, the memories tie the past and present together, to give you the story as a whole.

So, now I'm done. Yeah, this was freakin' eleven pages, and then half of another. Please be nice, and Review. Tell me what you think!!


	2. What The Hell?

**A/N -** Yes, chapter two. Sorry this took so long. I'll also be updating Thieves and Ninjas, but I'm sort of stuck on The Definition of Freedom, so that one won't be updated any time soon. Plus, I got a job, so I'll be working a lot. Just have some patience with me, okay?

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Naruto. If I did, Sakura would have bitch-slapped Sasuke _AGES_ ago...

**WARNING:** Spoilers from Naruto chapter 396 onward! I'd say I was going to twist Itachi's character, but after 402 or so, and everything, I'm not even sure what his character really is anymore, y'know? Anyway, heaven forbid, he going to have a big (for him) expressional reaction in this chapter, folks! So be prepared.

--

Ch. 2 - What The Hell...?

--

Itachi came awake in a hospital bed in an empty room painted a white so glaringly clean, his eyes began to throb just looking at it. For the first time in years, he was aware of absolutely no pain in his body. He could breathe normally, his eyes didn't throb from anything but the walls, and his bones didn't ache.

Also, the bed was actually quite comfortable. After nearly eight years of sleeping on bare, rocky ground, and rough, insect patrolled tree branches, this was down right soft. He resisted the urge to sink back down into the pillows and go back to sleep. Now was not the time. He began to take stock of his surroundings.

He wasn't strapped to a torture table, and he wasn't in pain.

Already established that.

He was _alive_. He made a mental note to teach his little brother how to _really_ kill once he knew where he was. If Sasuke couldn't do that simple job, he'd never get anywhere.

He lifted each arm, one at a time, and tested all of the ranges of movement. He was a little sore, but his arms were fine. Next he tested the dexterity of his upper half, twisting this way and that. Nothing wrong there.

Then, he threw off the hospital issue starched sheets and blanket, and swung his feet down to the floor. He recoiled slightly when the bare skin of his soles hit the icy linoleum. He grit his teeth and put them down. He slowly stood, testing how much of his weight they could take. His ankles wobbled a little, but his legs held up. He began to stretch, first one leg, then the other. He was a little shaky, but other than that, he'd been better than he had in a long time.

He looked around and saw there was a covered tray of food and a pile of folded clothing on the small table near the blinds covered window.

He picked up the folded shirt, and noticed it was black, with a familiar high collar. He turned it around and stared mutely at the Uchiha clan symbol on the back. There was only one place he could be. He strode to the window, shirt still in his hand, and yanked the blinds up. Light streamed in, momentarily blinding him, and then clearing to present him with a view of the Hokage monument and the Hokage tower, piercing the sky above the streets and building of Konohagakure.

He was home.

-

He was just finishing getting dressed when the sound of sharp, high-heeled steps approached his room. The door swung imperiously open and bounced off of the wall with a crash. He looked up from buttoning his pants to be confronted with the golden-brown stare of the fifth Hokage. She held an old, leather bound book that was severely dog-eared, and aged, and was flanked by two ANBU operatives, one male and one female.

"Sit!", she barked at him, pointing to one of the chairs at the table he was standing next to. He sat wordlessly, knowing what came next:

The accusations, the screaming, the pointing, and then his sentence of death. That was how this village worked, even if it spouted nonsense of being peaceful. The point was:

****

It could sometimes be a load of fucking hypocrisy.

The Hokage seated herself in the chair directly across from him, and placed the book on the table between them. The two ANBU placed themselves at her back, and assumed the rest position, their legs shoulder length apart, their bodies relaxed, and their hands loosely inter-locked behind their backs.

Itachi fought the urge to frown when he saw the female didn't conform to the ANBU dress code. Instead of steel arm guards and gloves, she wore belted on sleeves a little like his brother had worn back in his first genin days, only these were gray and belled at the bottom, giving little shape.

It was as she shifted a little that he noticed the press of a container against the inside of the sleeves.

Ah.

She carried something in there, and it was probably to disguise whatever special use she was on the battle field.

She was smart. (**A/N** - Remember this compliment. He won't be saying _or_ thinking it often, 'cause he's arrogant like that...)

Tsunade folded her arms and leaned them on the table, just staring at him. He gazed back at her levelly. She sighed after a while, and then addressed him.

"Uchiha Itachi."

He said nothing and continued to meet her gaze without a flinch. She rubbed a hand over her face wearily before gesturing to the book.

"Do you know what that is?"

"No."

Indeed, he'd never seen that book before. What was it, and why the hell did she want to know if he recognized it?

Tsunade glanced back at the female ANBU. The woman nodded soundlessly.

...The hell...?

The Hokage sighed again, then unfolded her arms, and interlaced her fingers before her face.

"Here's the problem, Uchiha. I have two sources that tell me you killed your clan under direct orders from the Sandaime and the Elder Council themselves. That would normally be enough to let you off on a year's probation before allowing you to return to active duty."

He raised his eyebrows at her. Was she finally so drunk she couldn't do her job?

"Excuse me, Hokage-sama?"

She rolled her eyes at him.

"You heard me, Uchiha. The problem is, the elders and Danzo won't admit it, and the word of one ANBU operative holds only so much sway. The key to your freedom is in that book, which has been hidden in a secret drawer in my desk for what looks like at least six years."

"What does this have to do with my freedom?", he asked politely.

"It's the confirmed diary of the Third Hokage himself."

He raised one eyebrow in a way that said: 'SO?'

She frowned at his expression.

"We need to do this fast, before the Elders get wind of this."

She suddenly pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of her over robe, and set them on the table. She pushed he paper toward him, and he bent forward a bit to read it.

It basically said that he agreed to a probation period of one year, and that he would return to active duty status after that. He also agreed to stay with in all boundaries set during his probation, he would not inform Akatsuki to any information he might become privy to while in Konoha, and he agreed to no longer go after one Uzumaki Naruto, Kyuubi container and knuckled-headed ninja extraordinaire. There were no vicious loopholes, no talk of torture, and no mention of execution.

He looked up at the Hokage.

"What is this?"

What he really meant was 'Are you a fucking idiot?'

She smiled in a sweet, and yet highly disturbing, fashion that showed entirely too many teeth for comfort.

"Did you honestly think that I would pass up the chance to bring a powerful Uchiha back onto our side? You're far too good to let go of, Uchiha, and executing you would be _such_ a waste."

She propped her chin on one hand and regarded him with a lazy, honey-colored gaze.

"Don't you agree?"

He was silent for a long time. Singing this paper would, for all intents and purposes, make him a citizen of Konoha again.

And why not?

Then he paused.

What did he have to go back to?

An empty Uchiha district, and the scorn of the people. Or did he? He looked up, and met Tsunade look for look.

"One condition.", he said.

Her eyes narrowed.

"Name it."

He allowed himself a small smile.

"You go public with the story. All of it. Diminish the Elders influence, and give me all the Uchiha property and fortune."

Tsunade nodded her head.

"Done."

"I wasn't finished. One last ultimatum."

Tsunade stilled, on guard.

"No forced marriage proposals. I will be free to marry who I want, when I want, or never, if that's what it comes to."

The room was silent as Tsunade stared at him with hard eyes. Then they softened.

"Consider it done."

She offered him the pen.

"Now sign before the Elders show up."

He took the pen, and at the bottom of that paper, signed his name in flowing script:

****

UCHIHA ITACHI

-

Itachi now stood at the entrance to the Uchiha district, with the pack he'd carried when with the Akatsuki, and his weapon pouches, the two ANBU at his back. Tsunade had said they were merely a formality until he got to the Uchiha district. He looked at them over his shoulder.

"I'm at the Uchiha Compound. You may leave now."

The female ANBU let out a giggle, as both she and the male relaxed into more comfortable stances. Itachi studied the male for a moment. There was something about his easy stance and the dancing black eyes behind his eagle mask that called to his memory.

"And why would we do that?", she asked, with another giggle as she reached up to undo the tie on her wolf mask, and pulled it away. The male did the same, but Itachi paid him no mind. The woman had his whole attention.

Her reddish-black eyes twinkled from behind a few strands of her long black hair, and her full lips were curved in a bright smile.

He stared in slight surprise.

"Mioko."

She laughed, and bounced over to throw her arms around him, forcing him back a few steps with her weight.

"Sempai! Welcome home! We've missed you so much!"

He became acutely aware of a pair of firm mounds pressed to his chest, and the delicious curve of her hip under his hand when he reached out to steady her against him.

Firmly, he pushed her off of him before his thought process could continue any farther down that road.

"We?", he asked. Mioko giggled. Then she jerked her chin over her shoulder.

Itachi followed that path, to the male ANBU, who'd just lowered his mask. Itachi's bag hit the ground with a muffled 'Thump' as his world turned upside-down, and his perfect control on his expressions flew out the window as his jaw dropped and his eyes widened.

It wasn't possible...

"Shisui..."

-

"Ha ha ha! You should've seen you're face, Itachi!! Kami, I love cameras!! Ha ha ha ha!!"

Itachi was sitting at a tea shop table in one of Konoha's bustling market places, sitting across from a person he knew for a fact should be dead. And sitting next to someone who was very soft, and smelled very nice.

Sage, and other herbs jumbled around his nose.

Once more, he put a stop to anywhere his thought might go with that.

(**A/N** - Anyone who complains about this: STUFF IT. Itachi is a guy, too. Guys think about that stuff. Just because he doesn't show it...doesn't mean he doesn't think it. And I'm playing that up. That's going to be important later in the story. And it's to show he's not some ice cold, flaccid, unarrousable rock. Good God...is arrousable even a word...? Anyway, I hope you get it now.)

Said someone kicked Shisui under the table hard enough to shut him up.

"Shi-kun, SHHH! We're good, but we can't take the whole of Konoha if they decide to attack our charge."

Shisui 'hmph'-ed, but shut his mouth and picked up his tea cup. Itachi turned to Miho.

"Three words. What. The. Hell."

She stared.

"You swore? You never swear!"

He picked up his tea and took a sip, no giving her a response.

She picked up her own and grumbled under her breath about snotty Uchihas and about how much fun sticking a kunai up their asses to dislodge the sticks would be.

He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes with a small smirk. He was gratified to see her smirk back.

So she'd learned to play while he was away, had she?

He remembered a time that hadn't been so.

-

__

"Sempai!! Do you **enjoy** silence, or are you doing this to annoy me?"

He didn't answer, just smirked.

His reward was her irritated snarl, and the thunk of her kunai as she hurled them with a vicious force at the practice dummy on the field.

"Jerk.", she mumbled under her breath. And instantly, a rock stung her behind. She spun around with a hiss.

He simply continued to lean back against the tree with his eyes closed.

A kunai blade struck the tree a little to the right of his head. He smirked just because it was so much fun to piss her off.

"You missed.", he drawled arrogantly.

"Son-of-a-"

He was across the field before she could finish.

He clamped a hand down on her mouth, then slung her over his shoulder, and carried her to the stream bank before unceremoniously dumping her into the icy water.

She came up snarling, shrieking, and very, very wet. He smirked down at her.

"Ladies shouldn't curse, Miho."

"Then go find a damn lady, if that's what you want, you ass!", she shrieked as she clambered up the bank, bent forward and using her hands as well as her legs. He placed his foot on her head and pushed lightly, sending her rolling back into the stream.

What he didn't expect was for her to grab his ankle and drag him with her...

That water had been really cold.

-

He smirked at the memory.

He felt her nudge his ribs with a pointy elbow, and he turned to look down at her.

"Are you thinking about the time you dropped me in the river?"

His head tilted slightly to the right.

Now, how had she known that?

She covered her mouth as she giggled.

"It was just a guess, Sempai, but I'm sure I guessed right!"

"Hn."

SMACK!

His cheek stung like hell as he closed his eyes and counted to thirty before opening them, and pinning her with a deep glare.

She met him level for level, and pointed a dangerous pair of chopsticks straight at his face.

"You ever sound like your pain in the ass brother again, and I'll do _far_ more than slap you. You are not an emo, and I will not allow you to act like one."

He stared, all anger forgotten.

"Emo? Sasuke?"

She gave him a dead pan look.

"I believe the appropriate response is 'DUH'."

He narrowed his eyes at her, and she rolled hers.

"Hey, you weren't here when he was a Genin. The kid was an ice-cold little snot. Otherwise known as an emo."

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he picked up his tea, took a sip, then picked up a stick of dango, and bit into it.

Women.

-

He stood in is old room after ten years.

Somehow, it was almost nostalgic.

The dust was at least two inches thick on everything in the house, but the loud THUMP that echoed through the empty compound when Miho found a couple of buckets, mops, and sponges locked away in his mother's old cleaning closet, was deafening.

She looked extremely pleased with herself.

And immediately got work,.

He protested when he found her in the kitchen.

"You don't have to do that..."

She looked at him with raised eyebrow as she dumped water into a bucket via the rusty sink.

"Sempai, I have to live here too, as a public 'guard' so that everyone thinks you're actually under freakin' probation. That means I have to be within two hundred yards of you at all time. So, obviously I'd like the place where I live to be clean."

He took the filled bucket from her.

"You're not a maid."

She started to fill the second bucket.

"Yeah, but I'm not a free-loader, and I'm sure as hell not going to sleep in a dust-covered bed tonight. I'm going to need that water if you want clean sheets too."

Her movements were slightly sharp and jerky, as if she were angry about something.

He grabbed her wrist as she began to lift to next bucket.

"I can do it."

She exploded at him.

"Not nearly as well as I can!! How often in the last eight years have you slept on an actual bed? Don't answer that, because I can! Exactly eleven times!"

He released her wrist in shock. She kept going.

"And how many of those beds did you have to either clean the sheets or make the bed? None!! So obviously me, with kunoichi classes in housekeeping, living on my own for two years, and keeping house for Ibiki-chichiue and Kyoko-ka-chan six years before that, can do it much better. Now let me be!!"

(**A/N** - I'm sure you're all asking why she's so crabby. That'll be explained a little later.)

He stepped back, put the bucket down, turned on heel, and left the room in a silent wave of anger.

Why was she being so difficult? He just felt uncomfortable with having her clean his house.

He wasn't in the mood for her to get so comfortable. He'd forgotten how good she was at adapting.

Couldn't she be even slightly uneasy with the memory of how he'd slaughtered his clan in these very rooms? Or was she that insensitive?

-

"Y'know...He was only being a gentleman."

"Shut up, Shisui!"

Shisui straightened from where he'd been leaning against the door jamb of the kitchen, and walked toward his angry friend. Using his hands as leverage, he lifted himself onto the counter next to Mioko, and sat there.

There was silence for a time.

"Why are you so mad? You're never like this..."

She sighed and paused in her ruthless scrubbing of the rusty sink and looked at him apologetically.

"You know how I am. I don't want him thinking I'm still the weak little girl he left behind. And I hate to free-load."

Shisui smiled a little, then reached over and ruffled her hair. She swatted his hand away with a laugh.

(**A/N** - There. Now you know. Thing is, she's going to living there for a year, and she doesn't want to free-load or be a burden, but the main thing is that she thinks Itachi is insinuating that she's too weak, and can't do it. She thinks he still sees her as she was before he left eight years ago. Follow?)

"You should try and remember that he doesn't really know us anymore, Miho. He's got to re-learn all the things he used to know. We don't all have the luxury of having people's memories to pull from like you!"

He tugged a long strand of her bangs, and she sighed, ducking her head and hiding her eyes.

"I know. It's just hard to know what he used to think, and try to work out what he thinks now. Sometimes it hurts more than helps."

Shisui made a face by sticking his thumbs in his ears and fanning his fingers out while crossing his eyes and sticking out his tongue.

"Booga Booga!"

She burst out laughing, much to his delight. When she finally stopped laughing, she hugged him lightly and turned toward the door where Itachi had disappeared.

"Thanks, Shi-kun! You're the best!", she called over her shoulder as she went through it.

The door closed behind her, and Shisui's grin slipped off of his face like the flow of oil across water. His expression was now mournful and full of longing.

He sighed and then buried his face in his hands in anguish.

"I'm such a fucking masochist..."

-

"Sempai?"

He didn't move his head from where he sat on the room of his parent's home. Footsteps slowly and cautiously approached him over the wooden roof.

He could smell her, because the wind blew at both of their backs, bringing the scent of sage to his sensitive nose.

"May I sit?"

He shrugged.

She gracefully lowered herself into a sitting position at his side, and he saw her loosen her pony-tail out of the corner of his eye. Her long hair sprang free to trace the wind, and reach out toward to sunset, glistening like a glossy raven's wing. With a sigh, she turned to look at him, and he prepared to be icy and angry toward her.

He wasn't expecting the sheepish and apologetic look on her face.

...

"Pretty sunset, huh?"

He didn't say anything. Honestly, he would prefer she left, but that would be impolite. And he'd been drilled to be always polite since almost the day he could talk.

"Are you mad at me?"

Was it her he was mad at?

Or someone else...like himself...and for what?

Would he take it out on her?

"No."

She looked startled.

"Should I be?"

Her answer was instantaneous.

"Yes."

A smile tugged at the corner of both their lips. They found switching monosyllabic roles entertaining.

"I'm sorry."

That was her.

"Why?"

He was curious.

"Because I thought you were saying I was too weak, and that you were insinuating that I was just a burden, and that helping out wouldn't change that."

She was fidgeting with her fingers like she had in that forest glade so long ago.

"Are you a burden?"

She laughed bitterly.

"I don't think so, but after how I acted, I'm not so sure."

"I am."

"Are you really?"

Her gaze was all knowing and it pierced all of his carefully constructed barriers, before tearing them to the ground. Too late, he realized.

She was under his guard and under his skin.

He wasn't sure how to answer, so he remained silent.

-

Good Kami, she wanted to smack herself!!

What a stupid question to ask! And yet...

She felt with solid certainty, the thrum of un-sureness that vibrated from him, and into her.

What was going on? Of all the people she'd saved and brought back from the very precipice of death, why was he the only one she was able to feel and read emotions with?

How could she feel them, knowing they weren't her own, and not go right ahead and admit herself to Konoha's mental asylum before she did something stupid?

She reached out her hand, and ran her index finger along the scar-like crease underneath his eyes.

A spark of surprise went through him, and she had to hold back a smirk. Really, knowing his emotions made this just too easy.

"We should heal your eyes. I can do that, you know."

He just gazed at her, before lifting a hand and catching her wrist in it. He slowly lowered it from his face, and she did her best to hide the hurt she felt at the obvious rejection. It wasn't as if she didn't deserve it, after all.

"Miho...how did you bring me back? I was dead."

She resisted the sigh that rose up in her throat. That question would have come along sooner or later, even if she did prefer later.

"It's a long story...", she began.

He motioned around them, at the stillness and silence.

"We have time."

So they did...

She actually did sigh this time.

-

He watched as her face turned inward in discomfort and unhappiness.

"I honestly don't know how I can do it. All I really know is that I _can_ do it..."

she shifted a little, but he remained quiet and kept his gaze trained on her face.

"What I do...I bring people back...not from _death_, but from the very edge of it. I call back your soul, using my chakra..."

His eyebrows rose, and she gave him a sad smile.

"I know it sounds weird, but that's the way it is."

He motioned for her to continue, and she made an unhappy face.

"All of your bodily functions could be down; your heart could stop and you could be declared medically dead, but as long as there's even a shred of your soul, or _whatever_ it is because I'm not sure, but soul's the best word for it, I can catch it with my chakra, and drag it back into your body. That's exactly what I did with you."

(**A/N** - I know you're all goin 'What the Hell??', but this is what she does. She drags the soul back into the body via chakra.)

"I can't save everyone. Some people have been medically dead far too long, and the soul isn't there anymore, or the wounds are too great to heal, like they bled out, or were hit some where that severed the spinal column, or were blown to itsy-bitsy, less than bite-sized chunks."

He almost wrinkled his nose at the disgusting thought of a happy Deidara standing over a pile of oozing, bloody guts he'd just created with his so called 'art'.

"But, with you, and Shi-kun, your bodies were dead, but both of your souls were still there, and I could feel it. I brought back Shi-kun on accident, and I should tell you that bringing someone back has side effects..."

There was a long period of silence, and then she looked him straight in the eye with the look of someone so jaded and old, he had to do a quick once over of her body to be sure he wasn't talking to an old biddy.

"When I bring someone back...I see their memories. All of them, from the time they were born up until the time they need my attention. So I know all about the Uchiha story, and what you thought and felt through it. I felt Shi-kun's feelings as you drowned him, and Genma's feelings at loosing the only woman he's ever loved, and that's what made him a playboy. I see all of it, and there isn't a thought or feeling I don't see or feel. And I can pull it all up at need."

She placed her face in her hands, and her shoulders slumped like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"But sometimes, there are memories and experiences I don't want to see. They'll even pop up when I least want them. It's so tiring to bring someone back, but then to carry their memories? It's exhausting, and I just feel...so old..."

(**A/N** - I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting bored with the scene, and if this shit keeps going on as it is, we'll hit ten thousand words by the end of the chapter. I don't know about you guys, again, but I think that's just a tad bit long. So, I'm going to cut this kinda short. Besides, now that you know how it's done, we don't need to keep discussing it. On we go...)

He hesitated for a moment before reaching out a hand and putting it on her head, ruffling her hair. She looked up at him with overly bright eyes, and he made the kind decision to ignore that. She swatted at his hand.

"Stop that!", she snapped.

"Sempai, I'm almost twenty years old, I've had some boyfriends, and I _**know**_ I've had more kisses in my lifetime than you have. Don't pat my hair like I'm a child."

He frowned, and that earned a smirk from her.

"Yeah, yeah. You may have been my first kiss, but you sure as hell weren't the last."

"I was your first?"

She bit her lip at the overstep information she'd given him, and he could have sworn she was blushing, but with his bad eyes, he couldn't tell. To be sure, he lifted a hand and placed it against her cheek, meaning it as a purely platonic gesture. What he wasn't expecting was the burst of heat that danced across her skin as he touched her.

OR the answering thrum of heat that rolled through his veins in response.

She took his wrist in her hand and pulled it away, but unlike his similar gesture, she kept hold of his wrist, keeping it somewhere near her stomach.

"You really shouldn't do that...", was all she murmured in a soft, dark tone that was entirely un-platonic.

Then she dropped his hand, and smiled at him in a harmless way with an un-reddened face. The sun had long since set.

"We should go in, it's getting cold, and we need to go out for dinner."

With that, she stood and offered him her hand.

"Time to go, Itachi-sempai."

Her took her hand and stood. It wasn't until much later, as he was eating in the secluded corner of a shady restaurant that he realized that she'd said his name for the first time since they'd reunited.

-

The next morning was perhaps the strangest in his life so far.

First of all, he woke in his room in the Uchiha compound, with light streaming into his room via his window. It was like a mix of déjà vu and nostalgia.

Next was when Shisui burst through his door, yelling a greeting as he jumped onto him and began to try to tickle him. He'd been suitably surprised and didn't think to get **_out_ **of the bed, but instead wriggled around, and ended up wrestling with his annoying cousin. Which resulted in lots of yelling and laughing by Shisui.

Which woke Mioko, which led to the third component in his strange morning.

He saw her with her hair truly down, mussed from sleep, as she leaned against his door frame in nothing a large green and blue stripped T-shirt, and what looked like black panties, as Shisui jumped out of bed, grabbed her, and pulled her into the fray. She joined the 'Tickle Itachi' plan enthusiastically, and he found himself not only tumbling with his cousin, but with a very warm, very soft female body as well.

One who knew _**exactly**_ where all of his most sensitive places were, and used that knowledge to full advantage.

Which led to the smallest of laughs leaving his lips, and freezing both of his assailants, who stared at him before cheering and redoubling their efforts.

Which led to tiring all three of them, and they ended up all jumbled together on Itachi's futon, Shisui on the bottom, his head at the bottom edge of the futon, and Miho on top, her feet on Shisui's head, and _her_ head resting comfortably on his chest, one hand playing with his shirt as he ran a hand over her hair.

(**A/N** - I'm sure this is another of those 'What the hell?!' moments for you, but I'm trying to drive the point of just how romantic their relationship really _is_ to you guys. Most of the story is about making them both mentally admit to it, and then act on it. And I've obviously set up sexual tension, but what's a good story without it, honestly?")

When the finally got up, it was almost noon, and they settled for going out to eat.

Again.

As they walked through the village, Itachi became aware of lots of pointing fingers and whispered comments being directed at him. He supposed he should have seen it coming.

What made it strange started with the loud "Oi, Uchiha-bastard!!"

He turned his head, and he registered a blonde, orange, and black blur streaking toward him. He heard the soft 'Shiick' of weapons leaving holsters as Shisui and Mioko prepared to defend him, if needed.

Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage, skidded to a stop no more than two inches from him and glared up t him. He gazed back levelly. The demon container jabbed a finger up close to his nose.

"I have one question!"

"Oh, this had _better_ be good, Uzumaki...", he heard Shisui mutter.

"Is the story that you were ordered to murder the Uchiha clan true? Yes, or no!"

He raised a single eyebrow at the boy with enough idiocy to rival Shisui's.

"Yes."

"And that you agreed to leave me alone?"

"That's two questions, you moron."

That cynical tone was Mioko.

Black eyes met blue as he answered.

"Yes."

Naruto blinked, and lowered his accusing finger.

"So...wait. You're a good guy now?"

He was tempted to point out that being 'good' was all relevant to perspective, and in the shinobi world, such a word had no meaning and the only people who spouted it were either Grade A hypocrites, or S-class optimistic idiots. He could not refrain, however, from a small dig.

"I believe the appropriate response would be 'Duh'."

Turns out sarcasm pushed Naruto's buttons. He exploded and yelled about Uchihas being sarcastic ass-holes who needed to be bitch-slapped.

A black-gloved fist came down with cracking force on his head, ending his tirade.

The pink-haired terror had arrived, and as she began to yell and shake him, scolding him about teasing dogs that would bite back, or some such nonsense. With a smirk, he reached out and took one of her hands.

She froze, surprise evident in her green eyes. He pressed a single kiss to the back of her hand, and bowed.

"I apologize for my idiot brother, and how he foolishly let you out of his grasp. Hopefully he'll come around. It would be such a shame if he were to loose you."

Then he straightened, turned, and began walking again. Mioko and Shisui fell in beside him as they headed for breakfast.

She elbowed him, fake pouting.

"You didn't kiss _my_ hand when you came back. Thanks for letting me know how special I am, Sempai."

His hand became a blur as he swung it around her waist and pulled her to him, hip to hip. Her face was inches from his as he asked her with a smirk on his face:

"Would you like me to make it up to you, Miho?"

She turned the deepest color red he'd ever seen, and shoved against his chest. When he didn't loosen fast enough for her taste, she braced her knee and lower leg against his thigh, and pushed. She was free of his arms and two feet away before she smiled.

"That's okay, Sempai. I'd prefer that you actually mean it first."

"Are you guys..._flirting_??"

Shisui's mouth couldn't have been slacker. Mioko pulled a camera out of her kunai pouch and snapped a quick picture. She laughed, turned and kept walking.

"Maybe!", she called over her shoulder as the moved to join her.

Strange morning indeed.

But he found he didn't mind at all.

-

-

-

**E/N -** WOOOW. Over 6,000 words. Crap, that's my longest yet. Anyway, this was obviously the transtionary chapter. Itachi can be in Konoha without being hunted, we learn a little about his relationships with Shisui and Mioko (Yes, I know it's fluffy, but I felt it was deserved.)

Next chapter will get things moving. The Elders will come in, as well as Danzo, and there will be a ton of petty arguing on their side.

Also, we're going to take a quick jump over to see Sasuke. After all, I think that was mentioned in the summary.

Anyway, I'm really pleased with this chapter, and how Itachi's character in shaping up. But I'm sure a few of you don't.

If you don't, well I'm sorry. Review (politely), and maybe make some suggestions. I promise to think about them.

So remember boys and girls, Reviews Love.

Please show it.


	3. Protests And Plans

**A/N** - Holy crap, Chapter three!! For all of you who've stuck with me this far, have a cookie, and lots of cyber money! -throws money up in the air- I love you all for your dedication! It's so nice to think that people actually _like_ my story!!

**Disclaimer**: No, I don't own Naruto, or any of it's characters. I simply twist them and their characters to suit my twisted idea of a story line.

**Warning**: Spoilers from the manga chapters, like 398 or so, and onward. Also, I'm opening Itachi's character. If you want the Itachi we all _thought_ we knew(the cold and emotionless one)...leave now. You won't like this story.

-

Ch. 3 - Protests and Plans

--

-

Breakfast consisted of rice porridge(**A/N** - congee, I think it's called), miso soup, rice, vegetables, and trout in the quiet corner of a small restaurant. They were half way through when Mioko set down her chopsticks with a decided CLACK.

"Okay, consider this the last meal we're eating out for a while. After this, we're going shopping."

Shisui choked on his green tea, and Itachi found the semi-warm substance now coating his face. He wrinkled his nose in distaste and reached for a napkin as Shisui began to formulate excuses.

"Well...uh, gee Miho, I'd love to-"

"Good, then you can help carry the bags."

Shisui began to pout, knowing there was no way out of the situation without pissing her off.

Itachi hid his smirk behind his napkin as he dried his face. Miho turned to him.

"You _are_ aware, with you having the Uchiha fortune and us being assigned to you, that you're paying, right?"

He sighed, then took a sip of his own tea, and Mioko took that as his assent. She smiled and went back to her breakfast while Shisui sulked and poked at his.

--

"You still like her."

Shisui's head swung around to face his cousin as they both trailed behind their female friend, loaded down with grocery bags. The older Uchiha turned a soft red color in the cheeks.

"What makes you say that."

Itachi almost smirked.

"You watch her to the point of obsession."

Shisui stumbled and nearly dropped the five bags he was carrying, causing Mioko to look back at them.

"Shi-kun, what are you doing?"

Shisui righted himself with a goofy smile on his face.

"Oh, nothing, nothing!"

He shot Itachi a malevolent look behind both the grocery bags and Miho's back.

-

It was just as Mioko finished putting all of their spoils away that a knock came from the area of the shoji door. In came three ANBU agents, and the one with a captain's bar marked on the forehead of his cat mask held out a scroll to Mioko.

As she took it and began to read it with a frown, the captain pointed at Itachi.

"He has been summoned to speak with the council. We'll take him from here."

As the other two moved to surround Itachi, he started to activate the sharingan.

Only to find he couldn't! Somehow, his body just couldn't activate it. He fought down panic, and looked around surreptitiously for a weapon. He didn't need it, however.

"I don't think so."

Both Mioko and Shisui were standing in between the ANBU and Itachi, a kunai in Shisui's hand and the sharingan activated, and Mioko in a very threatening taijutsu stance.

"No one comes near him if they don't want to get hurt. The council will see him, but they'll see us too. So is the personal order of the fifth Hokage."

One young ANBU, new by the lack of military paraphernalia, made to step forward, but his captain motioned him back with mistrust evident in his every movement.

"Very well. This way."

And the ANBU started out the door.

-

"Damn. I was hoping those old farts would wait at least until dark before they tried to talk to him. Tsunade's gonna be _pissed _when she hears that they took us through the village. In fact...-"

Mioko smirked from her place at Itachi's right.

"-I don't see Takuma having a captain's bar for much longer, eh Shisui?"

His cousin let out a nasty snicker from his left, making the ANBU captain in front of them give just the tiniest twitch. And then the over-eager ANBU from earlier decided to try and muscle the female around for some brown-nose points. He held a kunai to Miho's throat.

"Quiet, you useless slut.", he barked.

Two seconds later, his porcelain mask shattered against his face as he received an up close and personal introduction with the wall, courtesy of the ' useless slut', who's face had become her very own mask of ice as she twisted his wrist behind his back hard enough to make the bones groan audibly from the strain.

"I'm sorry.", she said sweetly, "But I'm afraid I didn't quite hear you. Would you like to say that once more?"

The ANBU gargled something unintelligible that still sounded suspiciously like 'fucking bitch' from behind all of the sharp porcelain shards cutting his mouth.

Mioko gave a razor thin smile that wasn't friendly in the least. Then she drew back one hand, formed it into half of the standard tiger seal, and brought it down in a vicious jab on the top of the ANBU's spine.

He crumpled like a paper doll and lay on the floor, twitching. Mioko looked over at Takuma with narrowed eyes.

"Some captain _you_ are. This kid's pathetic. How'd he even get past the first level exams?"

Takuma stood firm, his eyes emotionless behind his mask.

"Father and uncle on the Nobles' Council."

All the other shinobi rolled their eyes.

"_Of_ course...", Shisui muttered.

Mioko simply wrinkled her nose.

"He calls me a useless slut again, and not even his high up connections are gonna save him from an extra-large serving of whoop-ass."

Takuma gave what sounded very much like a chuckle, but he hid it well behind the mask.

"Come on."

He motioned them on down the hall, and they followed, leaving the useless kid lying there on the floor. They knew someone would find him eventually.

-

"-To spread such slanderous lies! It seems you cannot be trusted! We revoke both of your ANBU ranks."

Mioko choked back a laugh.

"Gimme a break. We all know only Tsunade can do that. Besides, I stopped listening to you fossils the moment I knew the whole story."

Koharu's head jerked back as if she'd been slapped, and her old, slightly rheumy eyes narrowed as she regarded Mioko.

"I have no idea what you speak of, girl."

Mioko rolled her eyes.

"We all know that a load of fucking BS."

Homura gave her a deep frown.

"That language is not welcome here."

"Ask us if we give a fuck."

Shisui was leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and one foot propped against the wall.

The council raised affronted eyebrows, and Shisui smirked.

"People know I exist now. I can see your influence going Nieeeeeeroooooo!! Krch!"

Shisui mimed a plane going down in a death spiral with one hand before mock crashing it into the other.

Mioko and Itachi each lifted a hand to cover their smiles, while the ANBU tried not to give into snickers.

It was then that the doors to the council room swung open with a bang, and a livid Tsunade stood there, flanked by both Sakura and Naruto. Danzo, who'd been standing in the shadows during the entire interaction, moved silently into the light. Mioko gave him a sneer.

"You know full well you may not talk to any shinobi under probation without my direct permission and supervision. And you certainly don't have permission to talk to my Uchihas."

Koharu drew her self up to what little height she had.

"How dare you order us-"

"How dare you overstep your bounds as council! You have directly disobeyed the lines lain down that dictate council power! As Hokage, I am now authorized to remove you all from duty, and label you as civilians!"

There was a tense silence in the room. All hell was about to break loose.

Koharu puffed up like an angry cat.

"You can try, but you shall regret it."

"That sounded like a threat."

All of the room's occupants swung around to look at Itachi, who hadn't spoken until that moment. Koharu and Himura stilled, and Tsunade cleared her throat.

"If you let me finish. I _can_ demote you, but I'm not going to. What I'm going to do is now alter the boundaries for the council's power. Consider most of your privileges...gone. And your influence?...out the window. Especially once the citizens hear about this."

She turned to Danzo.

"And _you_..."

Shisui bared his teeth in a feral grin.

"You are on round-the-clock watch. You _sneeze_, and I'll know."

Danzo gave a deep frown, but said nothing.

Mioko pulled a nail file out of her kunai pouch, and began to round out the edges of her nails in a brisk manner.

"So...we done here, or what? I wanna get back to the compound before dark."

Tsunade gave the barest hint of a smile and waved an imperious hand at them.

"G'won. Get out of here before I kick you all out."

With a grin each, Miho and Shisui grabbed one of Itachi's arms and hauled him away.

-

"There you are, Itachi! Dinner's rea-oh."

Itachi was kneeling before one of the clan shrines, his head bowed in prayer before the picture of a beautiful, pale skinned girl with the characteristic Uchiha black hair and eyes.

In her picture, she wore a secretive smile, as though she knew something that no one else did. Around her neck was the same necklace of black and white beads that lay around Itachi's neck. Incense burned before the picture, the smoke curling around the picture, and Itachi's still form.

Shisui approached as silently as possible, but as he moved to kneel next to his cousin, in front of the picture of his aunt Kijuuki, the floor gave a loud and obnoxious creak.

Shisui winced and silently cursed the floor in Japanese, English, and Farsi.

Itachi's eyes snapped open, and his body dropped from it's position of prayer. He silently looked over at Shisui, who was looking at him with a contemplative face.

"What?"

"Did you even...regret what you did? I mean, did you ever wish...you could bring her back?"

He gestured to the picture of the young woman, watching Itachi for even a twitch of emotion.

His cousin remained as unreadable as always. Itachi stood and walked toward the door, answering his cousin's question over his shoulder.

"She was already dead. There was no point in wishes or regrets."

"If there's no point, why can't you say Meiyo's name?"

Itachi paused, half way outside, his hand on the door jamb. Shisui watched as his hand clench just the slightest bit, and frowned.

"I'm just asking if you ever missed Meiyo, Itachi. Did you?"

Itachi looked at him over his shoulder with a sad and pained expression.

"Yes. But not as much as you...or Miho."

And then he was gone into the darkening twilight, toward the house.

Shisui turned back toward Meiyo's picture, and looked at it with a depressing face. Then he knelt back in front of the picture and lit a new stick in incense.

"Hey Meiyo. Been a while since I talked to you.", he began, thinking.

"Yeah, I know. You just heard from Itachi. I bet you would have been really happy if you were here. Believe it or not, that girl you used to hate so much, Mioko? She's the one who saved us both. Hope that puts a burr in your panties."

He closed his eyes and thought back to the time when he'd discovered how much Meiyo had disliked his friend, and why.

-

_"You little tramp!"_

_A medium sized vase made of celadon pottery soared out of a window, and past Shisui's very surprised face. He silently moved to the window, and peered in. His eyebrows shot up when he saw Meiyo, looking frighteningly ugly in anger, which was a direct juxtaposition to her usual beautiful calm. Facing her with her back to both the window and Shisui, her legs spread for balance and her arms up in a defensive position, was Mioko._

_Wondering what the hell was going on, Shisui kept quiet and watched._

_"How dare you call me a slut, you useless little foundling!", Meiyo snarled, reaching for another vase._

_"Better a foundling than someone who sleeps around when she's supposed to be in a relationship! I saw you last night in the grove with Hyuuga Shinoku! And that sure as hell wasn't talking that you two were doing."_

_The vase whistled through the air at her head, but Mioko stepped aside in time to avoid it as it smashed into the wall just underneath Shisui's window. Shisui felt unease growing beneath his breast._

_"You nasty little spy! Watched us the whole time, did you? That's the only action **you'll** ever get!" _

(**A/N** - Don't you just love bitch fights? They are the lowest and dirtiest you will ever see. Hair pulling, yelling, nasty names, it's all there. Anyway, Meiyo...God, hate her so much. I made her to be the stereotypical bitch. She's going to be one of the people who gets hurt...a LOT. And that's how I get rid of anger. Anyway, let's watch how Mioko does, eh?)

_Miho crossed her arms in front of her chest, and her tone became scathing._

_"Finally you stop denying. Seems we're getting somewhere. As for spying, I didn't come along until you two were almost finished, and I only stayed around long enough to see who the hell was screaming like a dying cat."_

_Meiyo gave an outraged shriek._

_Shisui felt his jaw go slack. _

_Wait, wait, wait. _

_Meiyo had been sleeping with that Hyuuga bastard?_ That Hyuuga **bitch**_, he amended himself. _

_Oh, that cheating slut! He kept gazing through the window, rooting for Miho to put Meiyo down, but also willing to jump to the rescue in case Meiyo got tired of throwing vases, and decided to go for her kunai instead._

_"Plus, you're a kunoichi. That fact that you didn't even know I was there only shows I'm better. And as for getting any action...that comment was so trashy, I'm not even going to grace it with a response."_

_Meiyo hissed angrily and pulled out a few kunai. Shisui and Miho simultaneously reached for their own._

_"I don't care if you know. You won't get the chance to tell.", she snarled as she took a menacing step forward._

_Shisui's jaw tightened as he got ready to activate the sharingan._

_"I'm not going to tell.", Mioko said, putting her kunai back._

_"Huh?"_

_**WHAT?!**_

_"I said: I'm not going to tell. And do you want to know why? Because I **refuse** to sink down to your level and do something so petty and ugly. Not to mention **dishonorable**."_

_Miho walked past a dumbstruck Meiyo, and paused at the door, getting in one last jab before she left._

_"While I don't believe in gods, I **do** believe in Karma." She gave an evil smirk. _

_"And I hear she's a bitch."_

_Then she was gone._

-

Shisui smirked at the memory.

"I bet you never knew I knew. I only wish I'd told while you were still alive. I hated you."

Shiusi opened his eyes with a frown, and stared at the picture as if he was looking at the real person as he poured out his dislike.

"Always hanging on Itachi, dragging him down. You were a manipulative little bitch, and you knew exactly how to get what you wanted. And damned if you didn't play my best friend like a damned devil. He never found out just how much you'd been around. After overhearing about the Hyuuga, I looked into things. _You really were a slut._ I'm fairly sure you did someone from every single ninja clan around. If I find out you gave Itachi anything, once I die, you'd better be prepared for a worse hell than the one you should be enduring right now."

His hands clenched a little, and then he relaxed and gave an evil smirk.

"But we both know who'll have Itachi wrapped around her finger just by being herself. That little girl you hated loved your man too. And damned if she isn't better for him. I hope you are watching how they flirt and get all romantic, where ever you are, and I hope you suffer like hell, knowing she's going to be everything you weren't and so much more."

Then Shisui rose and turned to walk out the door, feeling lighter and somehow triumphant. He walked out of the cold and empty shrine into the dimming day with a smile.

Then he turned and started walking back toward the main house.

-

Mioko set down her chopsticks softly, and looked back a forth between Itachi and Shisui, who were both so absorbed in their own thoughts, silence reigned at the table.

Mioko could feel sadness and confusion radiating from Itachi, and Shisui was obviously upset because his foot was tapping softly against the floor like it always did when he was upset, angry, of thoughtful about something.

What the hell was wrong?

"Hey, guys...Is anything wrong?", she asked as she picked up her cup.

"Hey, Miho...you remember that fight you had Meiyo years ago?"

Mioko choked on her tea, and then stared at Shisui. How had he known about that?!

"What fight?"

Itachi surfaced, and was giving Mioko a piercing look. Mioko looked at Shisui, her face promising lots of pain, but he remained unfazed.

"What'd she mean by calling you a foundling?"

The girl nearly had a heart attack.

Oh, Kami, what the hell else had Shisui heard?!

"Uuuummm...", she hedged, as both men leaned in.

"What fight, Mioko?"

"What did she mean, Miho?"

"Eh heh heh...", she laughed fakely, rubbing the back of her neck uneasily.

And then someone knocked on the door.

"Oh, thank Kami!", she said, shooting to her feet and darting away to answer the door.

She slammed the door open to reveal a slightly surprised and bloody Genma.

"Genma, I cannot _believe_ I'm going to say this, but...I LOVE YOU!", she cried and threw her arms around the senbon shinobi. Genma staggered back, and wrapped his arms around Mioko's waist as Itachi and Shisui materialized in front of the door. He grinned at them.

"She's finally come around! If you'll excuse us."

He swung Mioko up into his arms bridal style, and she began to wriggle.

"You idiot, I didn't mean like _that_!! Put me down!"

With a sigh around his oversized toothpick, He slowly put her down, and she stepped back to take in his bloody appearance.

"What happened?"

"Rough mission, and I don't dare go back to the hospital right now. Think you can patch me up?"

He smiled sheepishly and spread his arms.

"Why can't you go to the hospital?", Itachi dared to ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Because he keeps playing grab-ass with the medics.", was Mioko's answer as she disappeared back toward the house, crooking her finger at Genma to come along.

With a sigh, Genma, Itachi, and Shisui followed her into the house.

-

Ow, ow, OWW!", Genma whined as Miho stuck the needle back through the gash in his eyebrow to stitch it back up.

"Stop it, you big baby."

"Can't you just use a jutsu for this? OWWW!"

Mioko had pulled the string a little harder than necessary.

"Sure, as soon as I can get the skin close enough to heal it together without too much scaring. You wanna keep that pretty face of yours, don't you?"

"You're a sadist...", he muttered.

Mioko gave him a sweet, disarming smile-right before she applied the antiseptic.

"**OOOOOW**!! That hurt!"

Her hands glowed a soft green briefly, and then she swiftly removed the stitches.

"All done, you big sissy."

She patted him on the head, and he crossed his arms in a pout. She pulled a sucker out of her kit and held it out to him.

"You're reward, for _not_ grabbing my ass."

And then his hand made contact with said ass, and gave it a squeeze.

"I like this reward _much_ better."

KA-wham!

Genma's chair toppled over from the force of her punch, and he rubbed his now bleeding and swollen lip with a big, happy smile.

"It was worth it, I tell you! Worth it!"

"AAAAH! Get out, you pervert! OUT!"

She screamed, her face red with humiliation.

And Genma found himself outside the Uchiha compound in a puff of smoke before he could even blink.

He rubbed his forehead.

"Damn. I forgot Shisui could do that..."

He stood and brushed himself off, then strode off down the street in search of a pretty lady.

(**A/N** - Sorry, but I just wanted to wrap that up quick...)

-

"Ooh, Sasuke, we don't need _them_. Let's just get the Elders ourselves! It'll be easier with just the two of this."

Sasuke fought the urge to curl his lip at her. Karin was leaning on the arm of his chair, batting her eyes and simpering. He couldn't suppress the thought that _Sakura_ had never been this bad.

(**A/N** -possible side pairing, right there! I HATE Sasuke/Karin with every fiber of my being. It is the ONLY pairing I'm not open to in the slightest. Now Karin/Suigestsu...that's a different story...hmmm...)

"Would you back off?", he asked, his tone colder than ice.

She huffed, then sat back in her seat, looking very pissed.

"What is the plan, Sasuke?", Juugo asked quietly from a shadowed corner.

"Isn't it obvious?", came the shadowed tone of yet another male from another darkened corner, "We must build an army. It's the only way to keep all of the shinobi busy long enough for you to get to the Elders."

Out of said shadows stepped a menacing figure draped in black, with an orange swirl mask covering his face.

"Hn."

Madara took a seat, and rested his masked chin in one hand.

"And to control so great an army, we're going to need all of the Bijuu."

He pulled a scroll out of his pocket and slid it across the table. Sasuke picked it up with a disinterested air, opened it, and scan/read it.

"You'll find the eight-tails at that location. How you capture it is up to you, but it _must be alive_. Once we have all nine, power hungry outcasts and rouges will join us. And then you'll have your opportunity. What do you say, Sasuke?"

Sasuke 'Hn'ed again, then stood and walked away, followed by his team.

-

As soon as he was gone, Kisame and a new man entered the room.

This new comer had pale skin with two parallel scars running vertical from his left temple to his chin, mid-length brown hair that lay in a small pony-tail with some spiky bangs lying in the man's icy blue eyes. He stood about six feet flat, and he was the perfect specimen of an excellently built shinobi.

He wore a pair of kodaichi on his back, the standard kunai and shuriken pouches, and knives up his sleeves, under his collar at the base of his neck, two at his hips, one over each of his kidneys, one in his belt buckle, and one in each of his boots.

He wore non-descript black pants and a shirt, with his legs bandaged from ankle to just below the knee. On his forehead was the hitai-ate of Konohagakure, bearing a long and thing scratch down the middle.

"Ah, Hikara Yuu. Welcome."

He motioned to the chairs in a bored manner.

The man grunted and sat down in a chair across from Madara, and pulled out a scroll.

He pushed it across the table to Madara, who opened it and read it swiftly.

"I've got about sixty squads ready and willing to follow me. When you're little 'Destroy Konoha' plan goes down, send us a signal, and you'll have our help."

Madara raised one eyebrow behind his mask as he set the scroll aside.

"Oh. And what are you getting out of this? Revenge?"

Yuu gave an evil smirk.

"Nah. I just want a certain woman. She's gonna learn you don't scorn me without consequences. Stupid bitch was too hung up in Uchiha Itachi, even when we were together. She's the one who gave me these."

He ran his hand down the two vertical scars on hi s face, then lowered the hand and clenched it against the arm rest. His eyes took on a crazy, feverish light.

"And she's going to pay for it."

"Uh-huh."

...

Madara pulled out a com. unit from one of his huge Akatsuki sleeves and placed it on the table between them.

"Very well, you're in. Take this com. unit. We'll contact you when we have further information."

Yuu grunted, then stood, took the com. unit from the middle of the table, turned, and left.

Kisame watched him go with a small sneer on his face.

"That's one desperate fucker. If he thinks he can stop someone from liking Uchiha, even evil and dead, he's fighting a loosing battle. Women are crazy that way."

Madara smirked behind his mask.

"Desperate fucker, indeed. Girl did nice work with those scars, though..."

-

Mioko sneezed as she stirred the miso soup, careful to sneeze away from the food into her shoulder. Itachi looked up from the book he was reading as he sat at the table, waiting for dinner.

He found he quite enjoyed seeing Miho in an apron. He found it sexy.

No he didn't. Swiftly, that thought was banished to the back of his subconscious and tied there with heavy chains and exploding tags. Those thought needed to stop.

"Something wrong, Sempai? You've been staring at me for a full five minuets."

"Nothing.", he said quickly, blinking and going back to his book. Mioko, knowing he was lying, smirked, then put down her spoon and walked over behind him, and knelt down to wrap her arms around his waist and peer at the book as she rested her head on his shoulder.

She felt his heart speed up as she pressed her chest firmly against his back.

"Are you ok?", she breathed against his ear, smelling a small whiff of his masculine shampoo.

He stiffened under her hands, and his heart skipped a beat. However, he was as unreadable on the outside as ever. She frowned, and then leaned forward a little and scanned a page of his book.

"Advanced Genjustsu Theory? Haven't you already memorized this?"

Itachi shook his head just the slightest.

"Newest volume."

"Aah. Meaning you stole that from my room. Bitch."

She felt him chuckle under her hands and against her chest, and her breath gave a quiet hitch as something hot and unidentifiable zinged through her. Itachi didn't seem to notice, but he had. She saw it in the tiniest smirk on his lips.

"The door was open and it was sitting on your bed. Didn't think you'd mind."

"I don't. But you still stole it. So I'm still going to call you a bitch."

"Very mature, Miho."

She stuck her tongue out at him, then flicked it against his ear, just to be mean.

He froze stone still, half-way through turning the page.

"I assure you, Sempai, I can be very mature."

"Hn."

She knew she'd excited him, and that was what made her run her tongue along the shell of his ear, then blow on it.

"What kind of a response was that?"

She watched in fascination as his arm muscles began to tighten and flex, as if he were struggling with something.

(A/N -Isn't she a bitch? lol. She doesn't even realize what she's doing. She just thinks she's teasing him. To her, _he's safe_, and she thinks he won't care what she does. AKA, not interested in her. Ah, silly Miho...-shakes head-)

She giggled, then placed her lips against his neck. His breath gave a near silent hitch, and Miho knew she'd won. So she released him, stood up, and went back to making dinner.

With an overly large smirk on her face.

-

-

-

E/N - Ok, I know that was really uber-short compared to the last one, but it's mostly a transition chapter.

Next chapter, I'll be intro-ing some new characters, like Ibiki, Kyoko, and Hanaka Umahi.

They all play a minor role in the story as a whole, but a big part in getting Itachi and Mioko together.

Also, you've met Hikara Yuu. And anyone with half a brain will know who he is. If you wanna check that reasoning, drop me a line, and I'll tell you yes or no.

Also, in the next chapter, Tsunade does some healing, Itachi finds out why he can't use the sharingan, and we get the threat on impending doom from the Akatsuki.

And maybe Madara will find out Itachi's alive. And maybe not.

Yes, I know congee is actually eaten in China mostly, but Japanese eat it too. So don't whine!

lol.

Anyway, tell me what you think! REVIEW, people, REVIEW!!


	4. A Day In The Life

**A/N** - Wow. Chapter four! I'm so happy this out, since I'm also starting a very long Zutara fanfic, though I haven't decided on the title. You'll see it soon enough! And work...God, that eats up my time hours at a time...

**Warning:** If you haven't figured it out yet, Major manga Spoilers from 398 or so, on. So, don't want Naruto spoiled? Don't read!!

**Disclaimer:** If I owned Naruto, Sasuke would burn that damn ass-bow he wears.

--

A Day In The Life

--

Itachi came awake to a slim hand on his shoulder, and reacted without thinking. He grasped the slender wrist, and then tackled the offender to the ground. What he wasn't expecting was how soft his landing would be.

Literally.

He lay on top of a soft and yielding female body, one that smelled distinctly of herbs. He looked down into the startled red-black eyes of Miho.

"Well…Good morning to you too, Sempai. You smell good."

He gazed at her silently, willing his body to stop reacting to this delicious contact. Mioko's eyes had shut halfway, and the way she gazed up at him from beneath smoky lashes could be called almost seductive.

Was she wearing _make up_?

...

Nah.

His head lowered just the tinniest bit until his nose touched hers.

"It's not safe to wake me like that."

Miho gave him a prim, arched look.

"Have you taken a look at my chosen profession lately?"

He couldn't hide a slight smirk at her words. She really did have a point.

He moved to get off of her, but his knee slipped on the slightly slippery material of her silk yukata, and he lost his balance, landing back on top of her, with a heavy 'OOF'

(**A/N** - I know that this normally wouldn't happen, but silk has absolutely NO traction on wood floors. So, actually, this is plausible. Why is she wearing silk? I'll explain later!)

Their breaths hitched, and he felt the soft skin of her lips brush innocently against his. That just wasn't fair.

He reacted before he thought, for the first time in years, and slanted his mouth over her open, slightly shocked lips.

She was soft, yielding, and she tasted faintly of mint, as if she'd just recently brushed her teeth. With a surge of self-control, Itachi lifted his mouth from her, and looked down at her.

She was still, her form relaxed, and her eyes were closed, but he could detect the smallest hitch in her breath. He released her, and sat back onto his knees.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she regarded him with a steady gaze.

"I apologize. I slipped.", he said, then stood and began to walk toward the door.

(**A/N -** understatement of the _year_...)

"Perhaps you should slip more often.", she murmured as she brushed past him to exit the door first.

He blinked, momentarily floored.

-

Her lips still tingled in the aftermath of Itachi's sweet torture. Mioko may have been trained underneath Morino Ibiki himself in the art of applying and enduring torture, and that one kiss still made her want to spill every secret she'd ever had, right then and there.

She shook her head violently. That had meant nothing. He'd been asleep...he'd probably thought she was Meiyo, or someone else. She frowned, and touched two fingers to her lips as she paused just inside the front door. She was silent for a moment before she bent and slipped into a pair of high-heeled sandals, and then turned to grab the purse-slash-bag hybrid she left there the night before.

Mioko pulled a little hand mirror out of it, and checked her reflection. He'd smeared her lipstick...

With an angry curse, she pulled the light pink stick out of her bag, applied another coat, and then tossed both items ruthlessly back into the bag before stomping out of the door, and slamming it behind her.

Stupid Uchiha males and their male-yness.

(**A/N-** -snorts- Is that even a _word_??)

-

A loud knocking sounded on the solid door of a normal little house off one of Konoha's side streets.

"Coming, coming!", a woman shouted from somewhere in the house. Mioko stopped knocking and shifted her bag a little bit on her shoulder as she waited.

"Good morning, darling!", said a woman in her late thirties as she answered the door.

Mioko gave her a warm smile before stepping into the woman's open arms to give her a firm hug.

"Hello, Kyoko-kaa-chan. How are you?"

The petite woman chuckled, and tucked a tendril of dirty-blonde hair behind one ear. Her blue eyes sparkled with pleasure as she closed the door behind Mioko.

"Lovely, now that you're here. Darling, you really are too thin. Sit, sit, and I'll get you some tea and something to snack on."

Miho hid a small giggle behind her hand. This was the same routine she usually went through every time she came to visit.

She watched her surrogate mother bustle into the kitchen, and then moved to take a seat on one of the dinning table cousins, placing her bag beside her as she did so.

A moment later, Kyoko bustled back into the room bearing a tray with a steaming pot of tea, three cups, and a plate of sweets, which she set on the table as she herself took a seat.

She poured tea into two of the three cups, and then set one before Mioko, before pushing the whole plate of sweets toward the other woman.

"Eat, Mioko. You've lost weight since I last saw you."

Mioko rolled her eyes, and then picked up a sweet bean cake. She'd swallow her tongue before she told Kyoko she'd actually gained a few pounds in the two weeks since she'd last visited. Instead, she bit into the cake, and hummed in appreciation.

Kyoko Morino, formerly Kyoko Yamanaka, was probably the best chef of sweets in all of Konoha, and Mioko liked to take full advantage of that fact from time to time. She made a mental note to take some back to Itachi and watch his reaction.

"When is Ibiki-chichiue coming home?", she asked after she'd finished the bun, glancing meaningfully at the third teacup. Kyoko smiled before taking a sip of her tea.

"In twenty minuets or so. Going to the Umahi's as well?" Her blue gaze took in Mioko's make up, silk kimono, and high-heels(at the door) silently, almost icily. Mioko sighed, and put her tea cup down.

"I know you don't like it, Kyoko-kaa-chan, but it's only to see Kaoru-sama. I see Hana-dono all the time on missions and to train, and I promised I'd visit Kaoru-sama as well. I owe her my life, as well as my way of life."

Mioko smiled, and then picked up another cake.

"However, the cakes her chef makes can't hold a candle to yours. So I think I'll eat now, and be fashionable later."

She gave Kyoko a wink as she took a bite. The other woman began to chuckle, pleased by the compliment.

Both women looked up as footsteps sounded on the wooden porch outside, and seconds later, the door opened to reveal a large, bear-like man with a scarred face and a full head Hitai-ate. One large, paw-like hand was rubbing the back of his neck, and his face carried a hint of exhaustion.

"Damn bastard still won't crack. What the hell is it that makes these Rain shinobi so damned stubborn?", he growled out.

Mioko propped on hand on her chin, and her tone became nonchalant.

"Probably the same shit that they give you and Uzumaki to make you the same way."

Ibiki Moreno glanced up, slightly startled, and then his rugged face broke out into a grin. He slipped off his shoes and stalked across the room to ruffle Mioko's hair, before seating himself down on the third cushion at the table.

"Heya, kid."

"Kid, my ass. I'm almost twenty, Ibiki-chichiue."

"So you're still a kid."

"I'd tell you to go fuck yourself, but that's not even something I wish on your own hand."

"Oh, ouch."

"Kyoko, don't help!"

The women exploded into laughter as Ibiki glared at his new cup of tea with a sour expression. Mioko leaned over and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders in a warm hug.

"I don't see why you try. You lose every time."

The man smirked, and then gave her a one armed hug around her own shoulders.

"I believe I'm 'on the same shit as Uzumaki', to paraphrase."

Mioko gave the back of his head a swat as she sat back.

"Ass.", she told him fondly.

"And you're a bitch. But I'm not complaining.", Ibiki answered blithely as he took a sip of tea. Miho rolled her eyes.

"That's because you know you'd be sleeping on the couch for a month. I'm the favorite and you know it."

Ibiki wisely chose not to respond. He simply gave his adoptive daughter his favorite, one-fingered salute.

She responded by flipping him the double bird.

And the Kyoko swatted the both of them upside the backs of their heads.

"Knock it off, you dumb-shits!", she screeched, her Yamanaka blood manifesting for a moment.

A passer-by looked up at the sound of laughter coming from the Morino house, and then scurried on his way like the devil was at his heels.

Laughter from that house was usually a bad sign for normal people.

-

"I'm here to see Matriarch Kaoru-sama. I have an appointment."

The guard at the gate to the Umahi estate grunted, then opened the large wooden gate carved with leaping horses wide enough so that Mioko could slip through. Then he slammed it shut behind her, almost closing the gate on her foot.

She paused, and then bent to dust off the hem of her yukata.

"Thank you.", she called, only to add under her breath, "-Fucking jack-ass."

Then she continued on her way down ornate and shiny halls that winded in and around the estate in a maze of patterns. One who didn't know where they were going could get lost as hell.

She stepped and darted around the various rooms, trying not to be seen. She didn't want to see anyone else.

But it would seem she'd pissed Karma off today, because one ornate shoji door slid open just as she started to skulk past it. She stifled a curse, and then swallowed another oath when she saw who has opened the door.

Karma wasn't just pissed, she was on the fucking _war path_.

-

The young woman who'd opened the door looked down at Mioko with open disdain, and her cold brown eyes were haughty and arrogant.

"Mioko. So, the guards are letting in gutter trash again?"

Mioko gave the woman a cold and poisonous look.

"Atae. Sorry, must have taken a wrong turn. I was looking for high society, not a whore house. If you'll excuse me."

She moved to go when Atae descended from the open door, and onto the path. She flicked out a fan from the volumous sleeve of her kimono. She opened it with an elegant flick of her dainty white wrist, and began to gently fan herself, the man-made breeze just barely stirring her shiny brown hair.

"Still as uncivilized as ever, I see. They were quite right to force you out before you polluted the other innocent children like myself."

Mioko vocalized a loud snort.

"You weren't innocent by the time they gave me the boot, and we both know it. Cut the crap, Atae. What do you want?"

The other woman was silent for a time before asking in a careful tone, "How is Uchiha-san faring today? I trust he is recovering well..."

Mioko raised one eyebrow skeptically.

"Shisui's just fine, Atae. Why the sudden interest?"

Atae gave her a haughty look.

"You assume I ask about Shisui-san. No. I ask about Uchiha-san, and his health. You'll be sure to tell him I asked, won't you?"

Her tone implied that she thought Mioko was a simpleton to not have known that.

Mioko resisted the urge to tell her to go get fucked, but she didn't want to wish this bitch on any man.

Well, maybe Yuu...but that was besides the point.

"He's doing just fine, Atae, thanks for asking. I was assigned to him for a reason other than my ANBU status."

"I'd merely assumed you'd bullied yourself into the position. Everyone knows you have absolutely no talent as a kunoichi. You're very near useless."

Mioko rolled her eyes, ignoring Atae's obvious poison. If she had a nickel for _every_ time she'd heard that...

"And that makes you no kunoichi at all. Now, if you'll excuse me...I have an appointment to keep. Good day, Atae-dono."

Mioko then turned her back on Atae's slack-jawed face, and continued on her way down the path without looking back. But her thoughts were beginning to race.

She should have known the cougars would have started prowling the moment Itachi was proven innocent. She knew he would bee seen as a _very_ desirable prize to any noble family. He had wealth, fame, power, the sharingan, and very good looks that many would want bred into their family line.

She cursed under her breath, knowing that they'd be coming to the compound in packs now. Just when she'd thought she had a chance herself.

She smirked herself. Now, why would Itachi want little, foundling her, when he could have a cultured swan of a woman that would be an almost carbon copy of Meiyo. She had no chance.

And the smile on her face as she walked into the Umahi Matriarch's private garden was bitter and twisted.

-

"It is good to see you, my dear. I've heard you've been assigned to that beastly pair of Uchiha's, and my dear, I fear for both your health and your chastity."

Mioko resisted the urge to tell Kaoru Umahi she'd do better to fear for the chastity of her own girls. But she simply bit her tongue and gave a polite response that didn't even register in her mind.

The old, almost ethereal woman placed an aged and delicate hand onto Mioko's arm, and her wrinkled face showed distress.

"I'll try to talk Tsunade out of it, My dear, never you worry. The council members are my friends, and they will see you safely away from those dangerous men."

Mioko took a slow breath.

"Kaoru-sama...", she began, "You should know that there is no threat to me in that house. Both men treat me with decency and respect. You have nothing to worry the council over."

The older woman scoffed, and waved Mioko's comment away with a wrinkled hand.

"My dear, you have no knowledge of men. They are sneaky and conniving creatures who will do anything to get what they want. You cannot trust what they say."

Miho desperately repelled the urge to grind her teeth, and then scream and yell at this presumptuous old hag, but her outside features remained as cool and remote as a glacier's.

She owed this woman everything, including the time she now spent with Itachi and Shisui, because if this woman hadn't found her by the river bank on that cold and foggy morning almost fifteen years ago, she'd have never known them, or Konoha. So, she took the abuse silently, and ignored the old woman's unintentional poison.

The visit would be over soon, anyway.

-

Mioko breathed a heady sigh of relief as the Umahi gates clanged shut behind her. She'd managed to escape, making some excuse about a mission and how Tsunade needed her at the hospital, and yes, it had been a nice visit.

Of course, the whole 'I'll come and visit again soon' thing was a downright lie. The only Umahi she could actually stand for more than twenty minuets was her old sensei, and she'd never downright say she liked the older woman. She'd never hear the end of it if she did.

-

She was just walking into the front door of the Uchiha main house when she noticed that something was seriously amiss.

It was absolutely dead silent, and still.

As if she'd walked into the wrong house, one of the abandoned ones.

That was, until Shisui came speeding down the hall toward her like an excited little puppy.

"Miho's home!!", he yelled as he jumped onto her in what could only be called a glomp.

She gave a loud shriek and then a loud oath of pain as she crashed to the floor underneath Shisui's weight. Shisui didn't even seem to notice as he began to kiss her cheeks and forehead and nose.

"I missed you so much!!", he chirped in between pecks. Mioko began to struggle, slightly irritated and hoping that the bag of Kyoko's cakes that she'd brought back were uncrushed.

"For Kami's sake, Shisui! You do this_ every fucking time_ I go to visit Ibiki and the Umahis! Get off me, I'm _fine_!!"

Shisui was then yanked off of her, and flung toward the hall wall with a surprised look on his face. Itachi stood above them, looking nothing more than bored, but Miho felt the thrum of annoyance, and another emotion she wasn't quite sure about.

Unhappiness, or perhaps displeasure? No, that wasn't it.

She sighed as she sat up, rubbing the small of her back, and then her ass as she stood up.

She'd figure it out eventually.

"Thanks, Sempai.", she said as she bent and picked up her bag, then looked inside to see that Kyoko's gift was in a safe condition before looking up to give him a warm smile.

Embarrassment thrummed through their connection, and she only smiled at him wider, amused.

"It was nothing.", he answered quietly, then turned and began to walk away, just as Miho glanced at the calendar, and swore loudly.

"Don't go far, Sempai!", she ordered as she rushed past him down the hall toward her room, "You have an appointment with Tsunade in twenty minuets. Oh, hell, how could I forget??"

-

"You're late.", the blonde haired woman barked as Mioko dragged Itachi in through the front door of the hospital.

Mioko slid to a halt, then bent to place one hand on her knee and gasp for breath. The other hand still held onto Itachi's arm; Said Uchiha looked like he was trying to hide the physical signs that he was suffering from vertigo.

"Sorry, Tsunade-sama.", Miho managed to gasp in-between huge gulps of air, "Umahis take up a lot of time."

The brown eyed Hokage gave a loud snort, but stood from where she was seated at a nurses' station, and picked up a medium sized file and a clip board.

"Come on.", she said, beckoning at the two young adults, silently ordering them to follow her, "I don't have all day."

She led them down the crowded hall of gawkers, and into a secluded exam room.

"Strip, Uchiha.", she barked.

Itachi stared at her, not fully comprehending why he had to strip in front of the two women.

"Tsunade-sama!", Mioko hissed, her cheeks turning red in embarrassment, "He's only here for a Sharingan exam. I'm supposed to do the full physical a week before he goes back on active duty, and that's not for a year! If you want to get laid, I'm sure Jiraiya-san would be more than happy to accommodate y-"

Mioko suddenly ducked as Tsunade flung the clipboard at her, the blonde's face twisted in rage.

"Shut _UP_!", she snarled, before going over and slamming the file down on the table in the corner.

Mioko and Itachi exchanged silent looks of apprehension, more so from Miho that Itachi, as he was loath to show emotion in front of anyone he didn't trust, the Hokage included. Mioko fought the urge to then roll her eyes; He took his job _far_ too seriously some times.

Tsunade frowned at them, then jerked her head at the examining table.

"Sit your ass down, Uchiha. I'm low on patience, so I suggest you don't argue."

Itachi said not a word, not like Mioko thought he would, and sat down with a crinkle on the roll of paper on top of the examining table, his shoulders set.

Miho lifted a hand to hide her sympathizing smile. Tsunade gave her a sour look, then stood, and made her way over to Itachi, who was looking at Miho like he wanted nothing more that to strangle her.

Tsunade made a few seals, and then healed up a hand that glowed a bright blue. She placed this hand over Itachi's right eye, and then delved into his body via her chakra.

"Hmm...", she hummed softly, as Itachi fought back a grimace. Mioko felt a stab of pain in her own right eye, and frowned.

"Too rough, Tsunade-sama. Lighten the flow."

The chakra flow of the Hokage halted a moment, and T both Itachi and Tsunade turned to give Mioko an asking glance. she colored slightly, then said,

"I remember how it was done with Shisui, is all, and he had the same problem..."

The Hokage 'ha-rump'ed, but when she restarted her chakra flow, it was softer, and Itachi did not have to fight to conceal pain. Mioko gave a soft sigh of relief; Keeping the bond a secret was harder than she'd thought.

-

After twenty minuets of examining first one eye, and then the other, Tsunade gave her verdict.

"It's the same thing that happened with your cousin, and with the four Hyuugas that Mioko's brought back. What ever the case, her technique, since I'm not sure how to classify it, somehow suppresses Kekkei Genkai. With both the Hyugga's Byakugan, and Tenzou's Moukutan."

Itachi wore a prefect mask as he thought.

"Will I get the Sharingan back, or not?"

"Yes.", Tsunade answered instantly, then stopped to explain, "Every single person with a suppressed Genkai eventually reactivated their respective abilities. However, the amount of time until they got them back varied from person to person. Tenzou got his back within three days of training. However, your cousin, and two of the three Hyuugas..."

Tsunade flipped open the file, and moved a few papers side by side, then bent forward to examine them. She then stood up with a grim expression.

"All three of them took over six months of hard training to fully reactivate their former abilities. I'm not sure how long it will take you, but the previous cases, and the odds they set, don't look so good. With how far gone you were, there's definitely going to be a longer gap in between your time of activation."

She flipped through a few more pages of the file.

"Also, with Shisui Uchiha, the tomoe of the Sharingan had to be activated and cultivated one at a time. It's like activating your Sharingan all over again. And as for your eyesight..."

She sighed, then rubbed the bridge of her nose roughly.

"You're going to need at least three months of weekly treatment to get them back into semi-serviceable shape again. Right now, you're nearly blind."

"Thank you for telling me something I already know.", Itachi remarked dryly.

Tsunade gave him a dark look.

"As I was saying, three months of weekly treatment, and since Mioko is trained in battlefield medicine, and not optometry, we're going to need a new medic-"

The door to the exam room burst open, and four or five(or maybe ten) female medics all fell in, on top of the other, before jumping up and beginning to jostle for position.

"Me, Tsunade-sama! I'll do it!!"

She was elbowed in the face by a second woman who waved her hands.

"No, no! I'll do it, Hokage-sama!"

This one was pushed to the floor by a third.

"No! I'm the best in the field!"

A fourth woman yanked the third's hair with an angry shriek.

"You are not!! _I am_!!"

Four more women jumped in, all voicing their opinions.

"No! _I _am!!"

"Hell no, bitches! _I'm_ the best!"

"No, _I'm_ the fucking best!"

"_You_ can barely prescribe a sight prescription! _I_ can do delicate surgery!"

"So can_ I_! And I do muscle massages like you wouldn't believe!"

"Slut! Back off!!"

Their shrieks, yells, and yowls told the whole hospital that they were on the verge of an all out cat-fight slash massacre when Tsunade gave Mioko a certain look.

"If you please.", she said.

Mioko got a devious smile, and then reached into her kunai pouch and withdrew a strange tag that resembled an exploding tag. With a few hand seals, she tossed down the tag, and with a poof of smoke, there stood an exact replica of Itachi Uchiha, only nix clothing. The original could only blink and stare at how accurate it was, and ground his teeth over the fact that Mioko was using his memories of himself in such a raunchy way.

The clone turned and then darted past the group of women, to stop and lean on the door in a stance that practically oozed sex appeal.

"I need some help with another _ache_, if any of you ladies are interested..."

Ten different heads shot up, and three had nosebleeds and fainted dead away. The rest were drooling, and looking south.

"Well, going to help?", the clone asked in a dark voice that made a shiver spiral up every feminine spine in the room. And then the clone darted out of the room, followed by salivating fan girls that wanted nothing more than to ravish it. Very soon their screams faded away down the hall.

And Mioko and Tsunade burst into loud peals of laughter and the Uchiha genius slowly burned with embarrassment.

-

"Ahahahahaha! Are you _serious_? No clothes? Oh, Kami, we're going to have hordes of those creatures at our doors for _days_!!"

Shisui's head, still shaking with laughter at his cousin's predicament, shifted to the side to avoid the steaming cup of tea that seemed to appear out of thin air, when it had been in his cousin's hand only a moment before.

Itachi gave him an evil glare that promised a lot of pain.

"Shisui?"

"Yes, oh sexy one?", his cousin cooed in a bad impression of a female voice as he batted his eyelashes.

"If you don't shut up, I'm going to drown you again."

Shisui rolled his eyes.

"So?"

"In the sink."

There was a moment of silence as Shisui searched his cousin's face for some trace of humor, but all he could find was deadly promise.

"I-'m going to shut up now.", Shisui said,in an almost sing-song voice while rubbing the back of his neck. Itachi gave him an evil smirk.

"Brightest idea you've ever had."

"I'll say.", Mioko's voice chimed in, "Only Sempai, don't drown him in the sink. I use it to wash the dishes, and who knows what kind of pollutants he'd leave behind. You can use the koi pond, though."

Shisui began to cry. He just couldn't win.

-

"Hey, Sempai. Come train with me!"

Itachi looked up from his book and focused on Mioko, who was dressed in loose black slacks and midriff baring shirt in a flattering shade of red. He bit his tongue sharply to keep the thoughts away. He noticed she carried a whicker basket and a large cloth under her arm.

"Training?", he asked. She nodded, her smile almost blinding. He shrugged, then stood up and followed her down the hall as she skipped before him.

"Yay!", she sang, and he had to fight a soft smile.

-

"You're late.", said a sharp female voice as they arrived at training field four.

"Your watch is fast. We're right on time.", Mioko snapped as she set down the picnic basket she'd brought, along with a ground cloth.

A middle aged woman stepped out the shadows of the trees, and then into the sun. Her hair was light red-brown, and her eyes were a strange mix of brown and gray. A liberal of dusting of freckles dusted her lightly tinted bronze cheeks, cut off by two scars criss-crossing near the edge of her face, and up toward her left ear. There was minute laugh lines around her eyes, and her mouth, which was twitched to the side, in what could be almost be called amusement. She had ruby studs in the bottom of her ears, and one hoop up on the cartilage of her right ear, obviously good silver.

The woman wore a short sleeved, slightly baggy green shirt that displayed an long 'X' scar on her right arm, trailing from her shoulder to her elbow. On the other arm was a thick white bandage. Around her neck glinted what looked like a blue diamond.

Mioko made a noise of distress and crossed the field.

"That's not wrapped properly. I got fifty bucks says it's infected."

"I got sixty says you don't fix it, they'll need to amputate it.", the woman replied. Mioko gave the bandage a hard tug.

"Oh, you better hope not. If so, I'll rip it off myself."

Itachi wandered over with a raised eyebrow, wondering at the banter. Mioko looked up as he approached, and smiled, her hands glowing a soft greenish blue.

"Uchiha Itachi, meet my former sensei and mentor, Umahi Hanaka. Umahi Hanaka, Uchiha Itachi."

Hanaka gave him a nod of greeting, which he returned in a bored fashion.

A few moments later, Mioko leaned back with a pleased sigh.

"There we go. All done."

Her mentor 'hn'ed. Mioko 'tsk'ed, and Itachi made no sound at all.

"You mentioned training.", he rumbled after a time. Mioko rose from her knees as easily and gracefully as a noblewoman, and bent to brush away the dirt. The she stood straight, and grinned up at him.

"Get ready for one hell of a work out, Sempai!", she cooed, and then swung out at him with a fist. He leaned back in time avoid it, then stepped to the side before her other hand made contact with his ribs.

He jumped back, and slid a pair of kunai from his pouch, then slid into a stance that was vaguely familiar. Mioko paused a moment.

"You and Shi-kun use the same taijutsu style?"

He grunted in acknowledgement, and then became wary of the smirk that appeared on her face as she darted foreword again.

"Then this shouldn't take more than five minuets."

-

It was over half an hour later that Itachi sent her sprawling on her ass by flipping her over his back.

"Ack!", she cried as the wind was knocked out of her, a second before the icy sensation of metal against flesh rippled through her rapidly returning senses.

"Aww, fuck.", she breathed as she stared up at the cloudless blue sky, and the top half of Itachi's face. She looked father upward, and then groaned when she saw the devious smirk on his face.

"Please don't tell Shisui. I'll never hear the end of it.", she begged softly, and she saw his smirk grow as he slowly removed his kunai from her jugular.

She climbed to her feet without him offering a hand, which she appreciated, then hobbled sorely over to the basket only to find Hanaka gone, and in her place a note.

-

__

Girl,

I'm not interested in watching your foreplay. Besides, I promised the lady bitch that I'd 'protect' her from those 'nasty' Inuzuka's. Man, I think she's finally gone bonkers.

Anyway, I'll see you the same time next week. I'm on stand by for a little while, and neither of us should get stale.

Try not to get dented too badly. I can see already that he's better than you. But that's to be expected. He's a genius.

You aren't.

Anyway, when you're done, there should be a scroll in your basket. An ANBU came to deliver it to you, but I told him you were busy.

Read it before you eat, in case it's actually important.

Later

-Hanaka

-

Miho shook her head at her flaky former sensei, then reached into the basket to retrieve the scroll. She flopped onto the grass and performed the jutsu that would release the scroll's seal. The seal glowed a brief green, then vanished in a puff of smoke. Mioko pulled it open and began to read as Itachi came over at a slow and relaxed walk.

As she read, she cursed. There were only six words.

__

News on Akatsuki.

Hokage Tower.

NOW!!

She rolled it up swiftly, and then glanced despairingly at the basket.

"Lunch is going to have to wait, Sempai. We're needed at the Hokage tower.", she said with a sigh, and then stood.

And then the pair disappeared in simultaneous puffs of smoke.

-

They burst though the door five minuets later, and Mioko led the way up the steps to the Hokage's office, and then knocked.

"About time.", Tsunade called, and they took that as their cue to enter.

"Sit, both of you.", she ordered, and Itachi realized that Shisui was already there, sitting in one of the three chairs placed in front of the Hokage's desk. He sat on the one as far left as he could go, and Miho sat between them.

The room was palpably silent for a lone moment before Tsunade sighed and lay her face in her hands.

"I have bad news for all of you.", she began, and then went silent again.

Finally, she looked up and met Itachi's gaze with a sad, honey-colored look.

"Sasuke has joined the Akatsuki."

--

**E/N **- Okay, I have finally finished chapter four.

Sorry about how long it took...:hides in shame:

So, we had a kiss, and we meet more characters. And Miho got her ass kicked. And yes, _Atae._ :frowns: You lot aren't going to like her in a chapter or so.

Anyway, next chapter will involve more of the Akatsuki and Sasuke than Konoha, but that's only because our favorite trio won't be in Konoha!!

:cackles evilly:

Well, feel free to give me pointers! Review are also appreciated!

Thanks for reading!!


	5. Road Trip, Road Trip!

**A/N:** Whooo, chapter five. I'm so pleased about getting this out, because school's started, and I have work, and my brother is starting to move out to live with his girlfriend...Just so much that's happening!! That, and MAJOR writer's block. The reason NOTHING has been updated lately. Just be patient. It'll come. I promise, 'cause it always does.

**Warning:** Dudes, if you haven't figured it out by now, you're all morons. Major manga spoilers!

**Disclaimer:** If I owned Naruto, they would have the modern convenience of MOTORCYCLES! Can you imagine Itachi or Deidara on one of _those_?? :drools:

--

Road Trip, Road Trip!

--

His first thought and reaction was to curse fluently, echoed by his cousin and Miho, who had the dirtiest mouth of the three by the sound of her cursing Sasuke and Karma to an early death, a horrible sex life, and sterility.

Tsunade remained silent until Miho began to curse his ancestors, and then she slammed her hand down on the desk, effectively silencing their zealous friend.

"Enough, damn it! I know it's bad. That's why I'm telling you! And, why I have a mission for the three of you."

She leaned back in her chair, and cracked first one side of her neck, and then the other. Mioko began to tap her foot angrily on the floor, her way of telling Tsunade to hurry the hell up. The blonde haired Hokage scowled, and then leaned forward again in her chair to lean her elbows on her desk and interlock her fingers.

"I need for the last Uchihas to..._disappear_...if you all follow my drift. I've just received intel that Akatsuki's gotten wind of rumors. Rumors of our Uchihas still being alive. That rumor, coupled with the chance at capturing Naruto, will bring them right to our door, and I want _nothing_ that they want to be in the vicinity when they arrive."

"But, Tsunade!", Mioko instantly argued, "I won't leave the village when it needs me! What kind of shinobi would I be if I abandoned my village while it faces attack?!"

She shot to her feet and shook her head vehemently.

"I owe this village so much! How could you ask me such a thing?!"

Tsunade's answer was so simple, it made Mioko sit back down in silence.

"You're the only one I trust to take care of them. You're the only one who knows them well enough to live with them and go deep under cover with them."

Shisui finally spoke, his voice soft.

"So, we have to flee the village, like _criminals_. For one of us, this isn't the first time. Why should we have to run and hide if we've done nothing wrong?"

Tsunade frowned. But it was Itachi that answered.

"Because we are an extra danger to the village. We are not supposed to be alive, Shisui, and if Akatsuki finds out we are, they will kill every one we have been in contact with, just to keep us from returning a second time. I worked for that organization for seven years; It was long enough to memorize how they worked. And as for if we have or have not done something wrong..........that's a rather large and deep gray area I would rather not dissect."

Mioko gave a small noise of assent through her nose as she stared at the carpet past the toes of her feet.

"When do we leave...?", she asked slowly after the longest time of ear ringing silence.

****

--

Kyoko looked up at the solid knock on her door, and then looked at her husband, who currently looked like a chipmunk storing for winter, with both his cheeks puffed out with sweets, and the bottom half of his face covered in powdered sugar and colored icing. Rolling her eyes with a laugh, she rose to her feet to answer the door.

At the door stood Anko Mitarashi, and her eyes were filled with un-Anko like tears.

"I'm sorry.", she gasped, "I just thought you needed to know."

She slipped her shoes off and stumbled into the cushion that Mioko had inhabited only hours earlier. Ibiki gave a large swallow as he cleared his mouth of his huge load of sweet cakes, and pushed the half empty plate towards the purple haired woman.

"My dear, what happened?", Kyoko asked, suddenly afraid for her adopted daughter as she poured Anko a cup of steaming tea.

Anko just stared at the cup for a long moment before burying her face in her hands and starting to bawl loudly. Ibiki and Kyoko exchanged bewildered looks, and then began to try(mostly in Kyoko's case), to comfort the upset woman.

"Anko-san, Anko-san!", Kyoko cried as she finally slapped Anko across the face to silence the woman. Anko fell silent, and Kyoko cupped her face in her hands.

"What on _earth_ is wrong?"

Anko whimpered before she whispered, "It's Mioko, Shisui, and the other Uchiha. They're gone. The entire compound is empty, and all of their belongings are gone. And Tsunade said she has no idea where they went."

She began to cry again, although more quietly, as if unconsciously trying to keep from getting slapped again.

"I never got to tell him how I feel.", she sobbed in a heart braking way.

Ibiki and Kyoko once again exchanged looks, but this time they were ones of worry and confusion. What the hell was going on?

****

--

Mioko's heart ached as she left Konoha behind her as she and the boys began to travel due west; Toward the sea, and toward Fuzen Kaen, the notorious city of vice.

A little off to her right and behind her, Shisui was silently pouting like a small child who'd been denied a sweet. Itachi, a little to the front of her and to her right, was silent. But Miho felt a static like current that she could only call despair. He was tired of being on the run, of always running, and now she knew it.

She pushed off the next branch a little harder than usual, and easily caught up to him. She looked sideways, and saw that his face was the same blank scowl he always used. With a sigh, she put a hand out, and rested it of his shoulder as they both landed on the next tree branch.

He looked at her out of the corner of his vision, acknowledging her gesture. She gave him a small smile, and squeezed his shoulder before letting go and falling back a little.

Her insides were churning with so many emotions, and not all of them hers. With sad eyes, she glanced back again toward Konoha, wishing she could turn around and run home. But she couldn't. After all, her boys would need her.

She sighed, and faced forward just in time to avoid going head first into a two foot thick branch. She used her left hand to flip over it, then land on the next branch, which was a full twenty foot drop. She cursed as her ankle shifted, but she jumped again so that she could keep up with Itachi and Shisui.

She glared up at the swiftly clouding sky, and silently told Karma to go fuck herself.

Missing home was not a crime.

****

--

"Well, now what?", Shisui asked as the trio looked around the dilapidated outskirts of Fuzen Kaen. It was the very lowest of the city's slums, as run down and dirty as could be imagined, and then a little bit more. Mioko gave her surroundings a bleak once over, and tried to resign herself to living here. Honestly, she'd rather sleep in a den of hungry giant tigers than somewhere in here.

At least the den would be safer.

Raggedly dressed adults and children littered the many small streets in clumps, with no one venturing out on their own, and Mioko could tell that even the children carried at least some sort of makeshift blade.

The beggars in the streets were almost naked, and so filthy and disgusting, not even flies would swarm around them. The lucky ones had small bowls with which to collect their meager scraps. The others had nothing but their hands.

...If they weren't missing one, or both, in a few cases.

Mioko gave a noise of disbelief as she stared at muddy shacks that were merely cobbled together out of anything the people could find: wood, steel, Styrofoam, brush, and packed mud.

There was a spigot of water near the edge of the forest, but even from nearly one hundred yards away, Mioko could smell it's foul stench, and see the rust and mildew covering both the opening and the handle. She'd drink from that the day Itachi dressed all in glitter and a pink tutu, then ran around singing 'I Feel Pretty'.

Yeah, she didn't see that happening either.

It was then that she and Shisui both turned to Itachi.

"Lead on, Cuz.", Shisui said, mock-bowing a little, and waving for Itachi to go first with on arm. Neither he, nor Mioko, had much experience with inns at all, much less a slum inn.

Itachi, with at least double the experience as either of them, glanced at them in askance. Both shrugged, as if it should have been obvious.

"I've got the Sharingan, so I'm mostly on surveillance. If I do sleep, it's in the trees or on the ground.", Shisui explained.

"And my taijutsu is perfect for swift and silent killings. I'm a one-hit assassin and abductor. I'm not around long enough to stay anywhere populated. The best I get is a ten minute cat nap in a tree branch."

Itachi stared at Mioko without emotion for a few seconds before turning and walking directly into the slums. Mioko ran and caught his elbow, effectively stopping him. He gave her a tiny glare out of the corner of his eye, but she shook her head and refused to let go.

"You don't have an Akatsuki cloak anymore, Sempai. People aren't going to give us a wide berth, no matter how much Fuck Off aura we exude. It's best to just go over the roofs, or in the shadows."

Itachi simply shook off her hand, and kept walking, leaving Mioko behind to try not to scream and throw things at his ego, which might just get them killed.

Until she noticed that the people littered on the tiny streets of the slum actually shrunk back in order to put more distance in between Itachi and their persons.

She and Shisui exchanged perplexed looks, and then shrugged their shoulders simultaneously before running to catch up with Itachi before he left them behind. His smirk, clearly visible even behind his shirt's high collar, was enough to make Mioko want to slap his damned face. She settled for quietly grinding her teeth, and silently planning her revenge.

And when she executed it...Oh, he was going to be one sorry-ass man!

****

--

Mioko sighed as she finally sank into a very, very hot bath with a blissful sigh. Thank Kami and Karma for the Uchiha fortune. Itachi had managed to find an old, slightly run down, four room cottage for the three of them. Sure, it was a piece of junk and would need major fix-ups, like the roof before the rainy season came, and the back door, that Mioko didn't trust as far as she could throw it.

(**A/N** - and she's can actually throw it a nice distance...)

Also, they all needed jobs. It had been agreed as they packed that they would use as little of the Uchiha fortune as possible. Who knew when they might really need it.

And they'd be sleeping on the floor until they had enough to buy beds, so Mioko was thankful of the one thing this place had that wasn't mold, or drafty openings--

Hot, running water.

She gave another sigh of bliss, and then sunk down into the soapy water until she was covered almost up to her nose.

Of course, it was at this moment that a rather large ball of dirt, or perhaps a small and rather filthy child, broke through the old roof tiles and landed smack dab on top of our poor heroine. Mioko almost cried as Shisui and Itachi burst into the room, drawn by the sound of something breaking, and at being hit with cold air while holding a shivering child on her lap, and being unable to reach her towel as Shisui gaped open mouthed, and Itachi slowly turned redder and redder.

Karma just fucking _hated_ her this week...

****

--

He felt his cheeks becoming far too warm to disguise as he tried to tear away his eyes from Mioko, _naked_, in the previously filled tub, and now with an extremely filthy and tiny child in her lap, her expression almost resigned. With a sigh, she stood up, and set the child on it's feet, as the little thing was too dirty to label it as one sex or the other.

And then she turned to him with the smallest gleam in her eye, her long hair barely hiding all of her most private areas.

"Sempai, would you be a dear and bring me my towel?", she cooed oh so softly. He stiffened before turning and grabbing the folded old piece of cloth off the near by counter. It unfolded as he picked it up, and he held it out in front of him just enough to cover any unseemly skin. He respected her too much to take a peak. No matter how much he wanted to...

She walked right into his arms, forcing him to wrap the cloth around her body, and forcing him to feel her every curve. He swallowed hard, but before he could make an idiot of himself, The little ball of filth tried to run, and Mioko moved to intercept it.

****

--

She grabbed it by what was left of a yukata collar, and tugged it back as it tried to scramble away through the door.

"Hold it, little one.", she ordered.

The little thing began to fight and scratch to the point that Mioko had to lift it into the air about a foot and a half to stop it from hurting her. As soon as it calmed down, she dropped it back onto it's feet, and clamped down on it's shoulder with a firm hand.

"Now, what were you doing on our roof?"

The child mumbled, and Mioko gave it a sharp shake.

"I suggest you speak louder, child. We aren't the nicest of people."

"I said I din't know anyone'd cashed for this place. If'n I had, I wouldn't 'ave come this ways. Now leggo me."

Mioko raised an eyebrow, and turned the child around to face her.

"Leggo? Kiddo, you don't _dare_ ask someone like me to let you go. You just hope I decide you aren't worth the time it would take to kill you and hide the body. Besides, you can't weigh more than seventy pounds. When was the last time you ate?"

"This mornin'! Now leggo, you old hag!!"

GROOOWWWLLL.

The urchin fell silent as his stomach told the room of how much it contained. It's face turned red, and looked down.

"Well," Mioko snapped, "That settles _that_ argument, doesn't it?"

****

--

The little boy just stared at her.

And stared...

And stared some more.

Mioko finally raised an arched brow.

"What?", she asked tartly. The little boy glanced at the plate of food Mioko had put in front of him, and the bowl of rice, and the cup of tea. His eyes were so wide, she wouldn't have been surprised to see them pop right out of his head.

"I'm jus' wondrin' what your gonna want in exchange for the chow. Nobody's got this much t' spare!"

BONK!

"OW! Wha'd'ya hit me for?", he scowled up at her with big blue eyes, still angry from when she'd dumped him into her tub, and scrubbed him till he'd sworn all his skin was going to come off.

She put her hands on her hips.

"I do. I hope you remember I said I'm not a nice person."

Shisui snorted disbelievingly from where he lay on the moth-eaten sofa, an open book in his hand. Mioko gave him a venomous glare, her lip curling in warning. He didn't even look up from his book. Miho blew out sharply through her nose, and then turned back to boy.

His _very_ shaggy brown hair dangled almost to his nose, covering his blue eyes, and he had dozens of scratches, bruises, and cuts all over his fair and freckled skin. His nails could be used for freaking _talons_ where they weren't broken!

"You'll need grooming, kid. Who looks after you?"

"Nobody look 'fter me. I'm'n orphan. An' I c'n take care of myself."

Mioko raised one eyebrow, then thwacked him over the head again.

"OW!", he yelped.

"You'll address me properly, _apprentice_.", she stressed the word sharply, and all three males looked at her in varying degrees of surprise. She sighed.

"Don't tell me you idiots didn't feel the chakra that proceeded him. He's got talent, and I'll be damned if I squander it."

"My name ain't '_him_'. It's Hinin "

"Oh, good. At least we don't have to do _that_.", Shisui declared, his voice mocking, and was then hit in the head with a solid wooden camping bowl. Mioko reached for another one.

"Be quiet, or I'll make sure you drink water from that spigot we saw coming in."

She glared at Hinin.

"Absolutely NOT. We are not calling you _'beggar'_, not in this house. So, if you'd like to be called something other than _'him'_, as you put it, I suggest you pick a new name. And soon."

"New name? Wha's wrong with d' old un?" Mioko raised an eyebrow at him, almost as is daring him to continue arguing. Hinin wisely decided to stuff food into his mouth, yelping a little when the hot food scathed his tongue.

She watched him for a time, before crossing to her pack in the corner of the room, and pulling a book from it. Hinin watched her as he took a large bite of rice.

"Do you know how to read?", Mioko asked evenly. Hinin shook his head at her, like a bright pupil had just asked a very foolish question.

" Course not. Readin's for rich pudgies that can afford't." Mioko very nearly rolled her eyes at the term for a rich man or woman who was easy pickings for the pickpocket trade.

"And no thieving for you, my lad. Not unless it's assigned to you."

Hinin stared, obviously surprised she'd understood, but continued to eat, instead of commenting.

"Miho."

She turned and met Itachi's steady black eyes, then watched as they flicked to the clock. She followed their path, and noticed the time, then gave a mighty sigh. Mioko placed the book on the table next to Hinin, and turned to Shisui.

"Watch him. It's time for his eye treatment. No fighting, and if I hear him screaming, you'll be in so much trouble you'll pray to see Ibiki."

Then she turned to a wide-eyed Hinin.

"And don't even think about running. I have ways to find you, in any rat hole you care to hide in. However, I should mention that if I have to go looking for you, I will be most...._displeased_....Do I make myself clear?"

He nodded, blue eyes huge. She nodded once, then pulled a large scroll out of her pack and walked into an adjoining room, beckoning to Itachi as she did so. He silently followed her.

****

--

"Hmm...it says here that your blindness is caused by extensive optic nerve damage brought on by years of high pressure and stress. That's from the constant use of the Sharingan in both it's normal, and it's Mangekyo, form. The build-up of pressure is slowly deteriorating your entire eye, and all the muscles within it. "

Mioko gave an appreciating whistle as she read through all of the scroll's information.

"Man, when you have to do something, you don't do it half way, do you?"

Itachi gave her a soft glower, showing her that the sarcasm was wrongly placed.

"In other words, I have gradual on-set Glaucoma."

Miho gave a brief nod.

"Exactly. And that's exactly what I'm here to fix. Sit down please.", she asked as she motioned to the ratty futon placed in the middle of the room for just that purpose. He lat back, relaxing into the moth eaten cushion. She kneeled next to the futon, placing the scroll of the floor next to her, and reached up to brush a bit of his bangs from his tired black eyes. She didn't miss the happy thrum coming from her connection to him.

It was like someone had taken her soul, and his, and then combined them to the point where she could feel his hidden emotions. But, she had to wonder, could he feel hers? She regarded him steadily, but as his eyes didn't seem any more knowing than they already were, she decided to drop the thought.

"What I'm going to do, ", she explained, " Is attempt to perform a surgery called trabeculectomy. I'm basically peeling back some of the membrane flaps around and in the eye, and creating a microscopic opening which will allow a small stream of liquid draining. It's so small, you won't even feel it, or notice it. But you'll notice the results."

She took a breath. Now to tell him the bad news.

"However, Itachi..." He glanced at her as she paused, a thread of uneasiness joining the sense of peace he was giving off.

"I've never done this procedure before, and while in theory I should be able to do it, I want your consent first. I also want to warn you that scaring could occur that would render the procedure in-effective. So, I ask that you trust me."

She reached up and slipped a hand into his, feeling his taunt muscles at what she was asking of him.

"It won't hurt, but it will be rather strange, and a little uncomfortable. But I won't perform the procedure if you don't want me to. I'm your friend before I'm your medic, and I'll respect your decision, and Tsunade's wrath be damned."

He met her gaze, and they looked at each other for several quiet minuets. Itachi was regarding her calmly, and the feeling in the bond mirrored his expression. He trusted her with the one thing that was more precious to him than his life, other than Shisui or Sasuke...his eyesight, and his most powerful and important weapon. He gave her hand a squeeze, and gave a soft smile.

"Do it."

She took a deep breath, and then summoned her chakra to her hands. Then she bent over him, and slowly began to work.

****

--

Two hours had already passed, and neither Mioko nor Itachi had emerged from the room, leaving Shisui and Hinin in a staring contest. Shinobi trained or not, it was Shisui who broke the silence first as he glowered at the young child.

"Great. No I have to share her with you, as well as Itachi. Annoying little brat."

Hinin stuck his tongue out.

"It ain't like I asked her to take me in. 'N I'm not stayin' anyway. She'll get bored wit me. They 'lways do. And then it's back on the streets for me."

Shisui blinked, taking in the sad eyes underneath the tough scowl, and the uneasy shaking of the shoulders. The kid liked it here. He gently checked the book at him, and was pleased to see the brat's reflexes were good enough to dodge that. As Hinin's blue eyes glared at him, Shisui gave the kids his first lesson in shinobi salutes, starting with his favorite: the one-finger salute.

"First of all, brat, Mioko's not like that. She sweet, and kind, and caring under that whole 'I'm a killer warrior-fear me' act. Which is what it is: an act. She's also not going to forget about you. Her memory's _far_ too long for that, sadly. Which, don't cross her, just to warn you. That long memory again. Thirdly, Mioko knows what it's like to be on the streets. After Itachi left, her clan gave her the boot, just for being his friend. Not that she'd done anything, they just wanted her 'filth' out of their clan. Asswholic snobs."

He took a breath and then continued.

"What I'm saying is that Mioko knows what it's like, and she's not the person to forget _anything_. She'll take just as good care of you as she does of us. And let me tell you, me and him? We'd be dead as driftwood, me in particular (**A/N**- Yes, that was an intended pun...), without her. You'll thank the gods she found you in a few years."

Hinin gave him a weird look. Then he stood and walked over to Shisui, and put a pink wrist to his forehead.

"What?!", Shisui snapped.

"Are you sick? All of y'as?"

Shisui chuckled, then blew into the kind's face.

"I'm in the peak of health, I'm not drunk, and the only drugs I take erase pain and other illnesses. I'm telling you the truth, as hard to believe as it is."

Hinin cocked his head to one side, and his hair fell into his eyes. Shisui sighed, and pulled out a kunai. The boy began to flinch back when the older man grabbed his shoulder.

"Chill. You heard her. I even _scratch _you, she'll beat me within an inch of my life. I'm just going to trim your hair."

He spun Hinin around, and sat the kid in between his knees, and then began to remove the overly long strands.

"So, what'll be, Boss? Pony-tail long, or military crew cut? Naruto or Kakashi style?"

Hinin giggled at being treated like a customer. Then he turned and looked at Shisui with open eyes.

"Can I have a cut like yours?"

Shisui had to blink back the tiny lump in his throat at the sight of the admiration in the kid's eyes. It was....touching....

"Um.....sure.....no problem.....", he murmured after clearing his throat. There was a soft silence and then Hinin asked him:

"So, what it like? The place where you live?"

And Shisui launched into a spectacular description of Konoha, which led a lesson on the village hierarchy, which led to a tale about all of the different clans, and then to the story of his clan, and then his childhood, and then his family.

"I never knew my dad much, but I wish I had. He died serving the village. His mission was reconnaissance that went really wrong, and his comrades were captured. In getting them back, he found out about a plan to attack our home. So, he got his comrades out, but stayed behind to detonate the entire operation. He died, but his death saved all of us."

The silence returned for a while, and then Hinin turned to look as Shisui, their hair cuts now the same.

"What was your Da's name?"

Shisui paused a moment.

"Kesshi....", he said softly, "And that's where they got the 'Shi' in my name, and in my brother's, 'Kimoshi'. Why?"

Hinin hid his face for a moment, and he whispered his answer with his face in shadows.

"I'd like my name to be Kesshi....'cause your Da sounds like the man I've 'lways want'd t'be."

Shisui had to swallow another lump in his throat as he ruffled the boy's hair.

"Sure...Kesshi..."

Hinin, newly christened Kesshi grinned and threw his arms around Shisui, never even noticing the water that slipped in fat drops out of Shisui's eyes to land on the boys newly cut hair.

**----**

**E/N-** Wow, I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry, guys. But school has been so nuts, I've been unable to even pick up my comp long enough to really turn it on for the last week. So, here is the newest chapter of The Martyr's Reward. And we have Hinin, now Kesshi. and I think Shisui needed someone to mentor, and so Kesshi was created. I'll tell more about Sasuke and everybody else in the next chapter. But when that comes out? Hell, I've no idea.

Again, I'm REEEEAAAAALLLYYYYY sorry, guys. Please forgive me!

-EWN


End file.
